Motorsport: Paddon holding podium hopes

Hayden Paddon and John Kennard won two stages today at Rally Australia. Photo / Getty

Hayden Paddon's push for a podium place at Rally Australia received a big boost with back-to-back victories on yesterday's second day.

The Kiwi driver has long voiced his desire to secure a top three finish across the Tasman and, trailing leader Sebastien Ogier by 19.4 seconds heading into today's final five stages on the New South Wales north coast, Paddon has a chance to achieve that aim.

And if Paddon is able to climb the podium this afternoon and back up his surprise second-place finish at the Rally Sardinia earlier in the year, he will have his efforts on stages nine and 10 to thank.

Sitting in fifth spot and lagging 25.5 seconds behind the leaders after Friday's opening day, Paddon and co-driver John Kennard set the quickest time on the 50.8km ninth stage, crossing the line in a time of 28:25.1 to edge Norway's Andreas Mikkelsen by 4.6 seconds. And Paddon repeated the dose on the 7.94km 10th stage, managing to race around the course in 4:24.8 to pip Ott Tänak of Estonia by 0.6 seconds.

The pair of wins saw Paddon take a chunk out of the front-runners' advantage and, although gear problems saw the Kiwi lose some ground on the 11th stage, the day represented a vast improvement for the Hyundai driver.

"[Friday] didn't go to plan but we sat down and regrouped last night and we're back in the fight," he said. "My confidence is much better, I feel I can drive like normal and I'm making the best of my road position."

The improvements came from a combination of smart tyre choice and a quick fix to a differential problem that dogged his efforts on day one, for which Paddon thanked his Hyundai Motorsport team. Paddon opted for hard tyres on a ninth stage that featured four-minute gaps between the drivers to allow for heavy dust to settle, reaping the rewards while leader Kris Meeke lost time with a soft compound.

Tenth in the overall standings heading into the rally, Paddon will have 69km of racing to make up a 17-second gap to third-place Jari-Matti Latvala if he wishes to claim a second podium of the year.

"I have targeted this event all year as one of our strongest events," he said last week. "We want to push for the podium. At this level that's not easy, but we will be giving it our best shot. Of course, there is a little added pressure to score points for the team, but it's very pleasing that the team has faith in me to challenge for points."