Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon has indicated his next opportunity in the World Rally Championship is likely to come in April.
The part-time Hyundai driver placed 11th in Rallye Monte-Carlo, his first top-tier event since 2018.
Playing a support role to fulltime drivers Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville, Paddon and co-driverJohn Kennard sat seventh after 11 stages, but came off the road in icy conditions in Special Stage 12.
Fellow part-timer Esapekka Lappi will take control of Hyundai’s third car for Rally Sweden next month, but Paddon has told the Herald there is a good chance he will be back for Rally Croatia in April.
“We’ll just wait on the final confirmation of that, but this should build into that nicely. It’ll be another tarmac rally, so yeah, it’s just a matter of using the experience from this event to help towards that.”
Croatia marks round four in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and features asphalt stages across farmlands, coastline and mountains.
Hayden Paddon at Rally Monte-Carlo. Photo / Hyundai Motorsport
Paddon said he will use the next couple of months to reconnect with his team in New Zealand.
“It’s a busy time for our team at home. It’s sort of New Zealand pre-season, so getting cars tested and rebuilt. Other than that, we’ve got a couple of tests back here in Europe with the team.
“So we’ll have another trip back here next month, and then once we know what rally is confirmed, we can do all our preparation and homework and make the most of the opportunity.”
Paddon said he will compete in New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) events when possible.
“This next [WRC] one clashes with NZRC, so we won’t be able to do the whole championship, but whenever we can, we’ll do rallies at home.”
The Kiwi said the torrid conditions, lack of preparation and a new car made Rallye Monte-Carlo the toughest rally of his life.
However, achieving their goal of finishing has given him confidence to build on.
“We had two fastest splits on a couple of the cleanest stages. We were less than a second a kilometre behind our teammates, which was the target delta time that we were looking for. And the feeling inside the car is not great, like I know there’s a lot more in it quite easily once we settle in. So yeah, for sure, potential that I feel we can be quite competitive in the coming rallies.”
Paddon explained what happened when he lost control on stage 12.
“The conditions on that particular stage were really bad. I think everyone went off the road or had a spin. Just caught out with the slush, and even though the speeds were very low, just understeered off, caught the edge of the road and obviously, once you touch the snow on the side of the road, you get sucked in.
“Luckily enough, there were some fans around to push us back on the road and at least keep us in the rally. That probably cost us a top six [place] to be fair, which obviously would have been quite nice, but we were probably fortunate just to stay in the rally.”
Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.
