Top Kiwi rally drivers Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have won every stage of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship category on day three of Rally Portugal, to move from fourth to third in their class.
Despite Paddon's own assessment that he had made a less than ideal call ontyres, the two New Zealanders blitzed their SWRC opposition in easily winning each of the 20-plus kilometre stages. They also matched and bettered the times of several WRC competitors.
Paddon said: "This morning started well as we were able to match some of Sebastian Ogier's times. We did get a little caught out having hard tyres on the front of the car in damp conditions. Unfortunately I made a wrong tyre call in the afternoon too - but this time the other way around. Expecting the damp conditions from the morning, we went on the soft tyre compound option, but little did we know at the time, but the roads were 100 per cent dry. Some other competitors also got caught out, but magnified by a puncture on the first stage, we completed the last stage tonight almost on slick tyres."
After finishing Thursday night's four stages with a 24.9 second lead over closest rival Irishman Craig Breen, who topped the SWRC leader-board coming into this event, Paddon managed only 1.5 kilometres of Friday's first stage before an electrical fault stopped his progress.
At the end of Saturday's six stages, Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi had a solid lead in the SWRC category - more than eight minutes over Fiesta driver Maciek Oleksowicz. Paddon finished the day 53.7 seconds behind Oleksowicz - a margin that the Kiwis should be able to overcome with six stages to run. The competitors against whom Paddon is primarily judging his performance - Sebastian Ogier and Kevin Abbring driving similar Skodas run by Volkswagen - have had differing fortunes at this challenging Portuguese event. Ogier is currently eighth overall among the WRC cars - with Paddon while Abbring crashed during shakedown and has not competed.
