On the first full day of competition at Rally Argentina, Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are working hard to overcome the slight damage and time loss caused by a soft roll in the day’s opening 19.95km stage. In 19th place overall after that stage, the pair have steadily climbed up the leader-board to finish the morning in eighth place.
“A difficult morning,” said Paddon at the midday service. “It started off quite alright in the first couple splits in the stage and the car was feeling good. But then, obviously it got quite rough and we got caught in a slow hairpin left and the car sort of caught a rut and very slowly rolled over, which caught us out by surprise. The time loss that we had to get out of the car, push it back on its wheels and get going again.
“Luckily the damage wasn’t too much. The car performance wasn’t ideal for the next two but we were able to get through and not drop too much more time. makes the rest of the rally more difficult, but it’s very difficult conditions, so it’s just a matter of being smart now and not lose any more time. I think maybe a good result is still possible.”
Rally Argentina is renowned for its challenging roads. Paddon’s Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo lost 11 minutes in SS3 after hitting a stone and needing to stop to replace a broken steering arm and competitors Kris Meeke and Craig Breen both suffered significant damage on the morning’s stages and have retired for the day.
Paddon and Kennard started the afternoon’s repeated loop with a seventh quickest time in special stage six and have three more stages to run (as at 7am NZ time) to complete Friday’s action in Argentina.
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