Hyundai Motorsport holds a provisional podium position after a difficult start to its home event, Rallye Deutschland, the tenth round of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC).
The opening day of action for the season’s second tarmac rally was held in intermittent rainy conditions that made surfaces slippery and tyre selection a lottery for all crews.
Rain and the resultant mud created tricky conditions to challenge Hayden Paddon and Seb Marshall, and their fellow World Rally Championship competitors on the first full day of Rallye Deutschland. The Kiwi and his British co-driver successfully completed Friday’s seven special stages on narrow asphalt roads through the vineyards of Mosel, but a puncture on SS4 added misfortune to their struggles. The pair are aiming for a better Saturday as they look to make up ground inside the top-ten.
“Obviously not the day we wanted,” said Paddon. “Okay, we knew this rally was always going to be challenging, but today’s been more than a challenge especially with the rain and the mud this afternoon. This morning our pace was a little better.
“We struggled with a puncture unfortunately that we’re not sure how we picked up as we didn’t hit anything or cut any corners that could have caused it, so this was a bit of a mystery and unfortunately cost us a minute. Then this afternoon, we simply didn’t have the confidence in rain and mud.
“It’s very, very difficult to judge the grip. I simply don’t enough experience in these conditions to be able to push, especially knowing that in our position, we obviously can’t afford to make any mistakes or put it off the road. There are plenty of things to work on and tonight we’ll sit down with the data and on-boards. We’ll put today behind us, come out tomorrow and hopefully make some improvements, and get things going in the direction that we want to.”
A total of seven stages were held today, following the opening Super Special in Saarbrücken on Thursday evening, run over a distance of 108.51km. The lush vineyards and Mosel backdrop offered their usual stunning scenery but Hyundai Motorsport’s three crews struggled to paint a representative picture on home soil.
As championship leader, Thierry Neuville was first on the road for Friday’s stages. The Belgian completed the day in third place overall, less than thirty seconds from leader Ott Tanak and just 2.4s ahead of his nearest title rival Sébastien Ogier.
It was a frustrating start for Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo in the #4 and #6 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC cars respectively. Paddon suffered a puncture in SS4 (Grafschaft 18.35km), leaving him down in ninth place overall.
Sordo, meanwhile, led the rally at the conclusion of the day’s opening Super Special (Wadern-Weiskirchen 9.27km), but went off the road, unharmed, towards the start of SS4. He will re-join under Rally 2 for Saturday, the longest individual day of the rally.
Classification after Day One
1 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Ford Fiesta WRC 1:07:23.0
2 A. Mikkelsen A. Jaeger Citroën C3 WRC +5.7
3 T. Neuville N. Gilsoul Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +28.2
4 S. Ogier J. Ingrassia Ford Fiesta WRC +30.6
5 E. Evans D. Barritt Ford Fiesta WRC +52.1
6 J. Hänninen K. Lindström Toyota Yaris WRC +1:14.7
7 C. Breen S. Martin Citroën C3 WRC +1:24.5
8 J.M. Latvala M. Anttila Toyota Yaris WRC +1:54.7
9 H. Paddon S. Marshall Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +2:29.5
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