Motorsport: Paddon 12th in debut

Hayden Paddon in action during the Rally Italia Sardegna. Photo / Honza Fron?k.

Hayden Paddon successfully completed the final day of Rally Italia Sardegna, taking a top five stage time and finishing his debut rally with Hyundai Motorsport in 12th place overall.

Volkswagen's Sebastien Ogier claimed his fourth win of the season, with Mads Ostberg (Citroen) and and Jari-Matti Latvala (Volkswagen) rounding out the podium.

While the results spoke volumes of Paddon's determination and mature approach, as well as the team's hard work in getting the Kiwis restarted for Sunday's final four stages, the real emphasis for Paddon's first event in the Hyundai i20 WRC car was on seat time and driving virtually every stage of Rally Italia Sardegna from start to finish in order to gain valuable data about the car to contribute to the team.

Rally Italia Sardegna, the sixth round of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship, was just the sixth WRC event contested by the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team which, next week, marks its one year anniversary of the official inauguration of Hyundai Motorsport's facility in Alzenau, Germany.

The team's objectives for the entire 2014 season are to build up experience in a competitive rally environment and adapting the Hyundai i20 WRC car performance to the particularities of each stage and each rally - and Paddon and Kennard were pleased to contribute their efforts to the team's learning and development.

Speaking after the finish ceremony Paddon said: "It was good to get to the end of the rally. It's obviously been very challenging but to get through the stages and get some valuable time in the car is going to help us a lot so we can more forward from here.

"It's been great to be in the car; we've learned a lot, we've got a lot of data and information to take away from this and we're going to work hard for Poland, an event which is new for a lot of people which will help us. It's been a good weekend all in all."

Paddon's long-time co-driver John Kennard believes it was a very good debut.

"It went really well," said the Blenheim-based co-driver. "It's a really technical event and we're here for the first time. Hayden's driven it well, he's learnt things and he's carried on progressing all the way through the event.

"Overall it was pretty much a perfect event for us. Sure it was a pity we stopped for a while in one stage, but these things always happen so we've got over it, got out today and done some good times again."

Having finished Saturday in 13th overall based on the assigned time received when an engine misfire meant the team asked Paddon to stop and not complete the day's final, very long stage, Paddon and Kennard started Sunday fourth on the road.

The Kiwis took their best stage ranking of the event through the 8.98 km Cala Flumini stage with a fifth quickest time, just 0.5 sec slower than team-mate Thierry Neuville. Paddon's comment was: "Very slippery in here, there's a lot of loose gravel."

The Kiwis then continued steadily through the remaining three stages to finish their first rally in the Hyundai i20 WRC in 12th place, which also made them the leading Hyundai in only the sixth event that the team has contested.