It’s been a frustrating day for Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard in Mexico (Friday, CST) as they waited for the action to start with fellow World Rally Championship competitors when the morning’s two stages were cancelled by organisers. An accident involving non-rally vehicles closed the motorway for six hours between Mexico City – where Thursday night’s super special stages were run – and rally host city Leon.
This caused major delays transporting rally cars and team support personnel, who didn’t arrive in Leon until 8.30 Friday morning, just 90 minutes before the opening stage was due to start. So stages 2 and 3 were scrapped, with the rally proper getting underway at 4.15pm with El Chocolate [54.90km] Las Minas [19.68km] and then three short sprint tests: Street Stage Guanajuato [1.09km] and the Autodromo de Leon [2.3km – run twice].
Sitting fifth overnight, Paddon and Kennard delivered a strong performance through El Chocolate with the third quickest time. Another solid time through stage five saw the Kiwis comfortably in third behind defending world rally champion Sebastien Ogier and rally leader Kris Meeke.
But the frustrations were to continue when a technical problem slowed Paddon and Kennard on the first of three evening short super special stages – the pair lost a minute on their rivals and dropped to seventh overall. Technical issues also affected the Hyundais of team-mates Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville.
Paddon said: “The rally [proper] got off to not a bad start, sitting in top three position. A little bit of a surprise as we were struggling with a few little issues, but the times were still not bad, so there was a bit of confidence to take away from that.
“But unfortunately, a technical problem sort of struck down the three cars in the team which, at the end of the day, cost us a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, we’re still here. The guys are going to work hard overnight to try and rectify the problem so we can come back out tomorrow. We’ve seen the conditions are very tough; it’s going to be very hard. A long day tomorrow; we’re still right in this and we’ll solve things tonight to come back out fighting tomorrow.”
Classification after Day One
1 K. Meeke P. Nagle Citroën C3 WRC 1:01:33.8
2 S. Ogier J. Ingrassia Ford Fiesta WRC +20.9
3 T. Neuville N. Gilsoul Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +56.7
4 J. Hänninen K. Lindström Toyota Yaris WRC +1:27.3
5 O. Tanak M. Jarveoja Ford Fiesta WRC +1:32.9
6 S. Lefebvre G. Moreau Citroën C3 WRC +1:52.8
7 H. Paddon J. Kennard Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +2:02.1
8 J. M. Latvala M. Anttila Toyota Yaris WRC +2:30.8
9 P. Tidemand J. Andersson Škoda Fabia R5 +3:24.3
10 E. Camilli B. Veillas Ford Fiesta R5 +3:59.7
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