Motorsport: Paddon secures career-best finish

Hayden Paddon in action during the Swedish Rally. Photo / @tWorld / Vettas Media

Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have secured a career-best result with fifth place in Rally Sweden, the first of twelve events they will contest in the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship.

Driving for the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team this weekend, the Kiwis held a strong sixth position overall from late Friday afternoon and through Saturday's longest day of competitive stages in the tricky snow and ice conditions of the WRC's only full winter event.

They approached Sunday's final three stages with one goal - to bring their Hyundai i20 WRC car home in the top six.

But when Mads Ostberg became stuck in a snow bank during the first of Sunday's three stages, Paddon and Kennard were perfectly positioned to benefit with a shift up the rankings to fifth.

From there, they concentrated on successfully completing the final two tests through to wrap up the event and secure their best-ever WRC result.

"I'm really happy," said Paddon who described the result as the perfect start to his season. "To get in the top five is much more than we expected going into this rally. It's been a good rally for us overall and very important to gain the experience in these demanding winter conditions.

"This year conditions are probably the best they've been here for many years. There was a lot of snow before the rally, so there are really good snow banks and I guess that's been encouraging drivers to drive fast, to really lean on the snow banks. At the same time that's a catch 22, that's what's been catching some drivers out, including ourselves in some circumstances."

For this event Paddon and Kennard drove the #8 Hyundai i20 WRC car normally run by Hyundai Motorsport team-mate Dani Sordo and co-driver Marc Marti.

However Sordo was out with a training injury, so Paddon's fifth place meant he earned ten valuable WRC manufacturers' points for the team to complement the 18 points earned by Hyundai Shell World Rally Team teammates Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul who fought hard for their second place finish.

Meanwhile Paddon's usual #20 car was successfully bought home by the team's test driver Kevin Abbring and co-driver Sebastian Marshall in eleventh place.

Paddon added: "After finishing Friday's stages in sixth overall, we looked at cementing that position and building up a buffer. We had to work a lot on adapting our driving style to the set-up of the car and to the special requirements of these stages. It's been a tricky rally for everyone and a big learning curve for us, so overall I am pleased with how we have tackled the event and the improvements we've made. We've keep ourselves clean, haven't made any mistakes - okay, yes, there's still some speed to come, but we know exactly where to improve. We've definitely had some good moments - as well as some struggles - but to finish in the top five is a really good result.

"I'm really happy for the team, with Thierry in second and us in fifth is good for the manufacturers' points and that's exactly what our job was for the weekend."

WRC Rally Sweden Overall Classification after Day Three
1. S. Ogier / J. Ingrassia (Volkswagen Polo R WRC)
2. T. Neuville / N. Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 WRC) +6.4
3. A. Mikkelsen / O. Floene (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 39.8
4. O. Tanak / R. Molder (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +2:26.0
5. H. Paddon / J. Kennard (Hyundai i20 WRC) +3:31.5
6. E. Evans / D. Barritt (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +3:53.0
7. K. Meeke / P. Nagle (Citroën DS3 WRC) +4:05.8
8. M. Prokop / J. Tomanek (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +4:26.0
9. Y. Protasov / P. Cherepin (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +5:32.2
10. M. Østberg / J. Andersson (Citroën DS3 WRC) +6:50.9
11. K. Abbring / S. Marshall (Hyundai i20 WRC) +7:55.6