Paddon and Kennard close the gap

Hayden Paddon in action during Rally Australia around Coffs Harbour. Picture / Michael Vettas / Vettas Media

Kiwis put up a good show in Rally Australia

The Kiwi rally pair of Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard finished Rally Australia this weekend in a career-high sixth place.

In only their fourth full-on top-echelon World Rally Championship event, the pair faced an event-long battle around Coffs Harbour with the Citroen's Mads Ostberg and Jonas Andersson.

The Kiwis were nicely positioned to take advantage of Ostberg's misfortune of a broken suspension towards the end of day three's racing. Paddon and Kennard also finished the best of the three Hyundai Motorsport works drivers, gaining valuable manufacturer points for the South Korean car company.

"We didn't quite make it into the top five as we were hoping, but sixth overall is our best result with the team," Paddon told Driven. "We've made really good progress in terms of performance and outright speed since Finland and we're much closer to the leaders. We've done everything the team has asked of us.

"The 100 per cent finishing ratio of all the WRC cars this weekend made it more difficult to climb the leaderboard than normal, but we're happy we were mixing it among the top six for the whole rally."

Paddon's Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville battled hard to finish seventh with some solid stage times while the third team member, Australian Chris Atkinson, ended his home rally in 10th spot.

Rally Australia was the first outing for the fledgling Hyundai Motorsport outfit and they gained valuable experience in preparation for next season.

"First, congratulations to Hayden on securing his best ever WRC finish with sixth place," said team principal Michel Nandan.

"He has driven a mature and faultless rally from the start and it was a thrilling battle. We knew after Rally Germany that we would have to reset our expectations for this rally, so I am pleased to have all three cars finish inside the top 10.

"The Hyundai i20 WRC has never competed on Australian soil before so this has been a very important, valuable weekend for us as we prepare for next season. All three drivers have allowed us to learn more about the car and we have made some key improvements over the three days. We must never forget this is still a learning year and we are up against some strong, experienced competition."

Defending champion Sebastien Ogier held off a last-gasp lunge by his own team-mate to claim his second Rally Australia title and help the Volkswagen team clinch the 2014 FIA WRC manufacturer's title.

Ogier kept his cool as Finnish team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala tried to catch up over the final three special stages to end the rally with a 6.8sec buffer. Norway's Andreas Mikkelsen came home 11.8sec behind Latvala in third spot to secure Volkswagen's first 1-2-3 in the WRC.

It was Ogier's sixth win of the season and it moved him closer to a second straight championship title. He now has a 50-point buffer over Latvala heading into his home round in France next month.

"Jari-Matti was strong but I knew that without mistakes I would be okay," said Ogier.

"It wasn't a big winning margin but enough to win the rally and another crucial step towards winning the title."

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