Paddon in ‘maximum attack’ mode
‘‘Absolutely maximum attack.’’
Hayden Paddon is crystal clear what his approach will be as he bids to kick-start his world rally championship season in Argentina.
Fourth overall last year, including a historic victory in Argentina, Kiwi driver Paddon has been unable to get near that kind of success so far in 2017.
A retirement, a seventh, a fifth and a sixth left the Hyundai team member languishing in eighth after four rounds, something he was determined to change.
A return not only to where he became the first New Zealander to win a WRC round, but to his preferred surface of gravel, had Paddon optimistic about his prospects.
‘‘Certainly you have more confidence coming back to a place where you know you can be competitive, and lot of stages are much the same as last year,’’ he said ahead of the opening super special stage in Cordoba overnight tonight (NZT).
‘‘This was obviously a key event for us last year and since then we’ve been chasing the same sort of success.
‘‘Lots of things have not worked out for us [this year], we need to reset and I hope this weekend can provide that.
‘‘It is definitely much more natural [on gravel] and I have much less nerves coming to a surface I have grown up on.’’
While the character of the roads in Argentina are more familiar, they are also contrasting and unforgiving.
The drivers encounter everything from soft and sandy to smooth and hard during the first two days, while Paddon described the narrow and twisty mountain stages on the third and final day as the hardest of the championship.
Dangerous rocks, loose and embedded in the surface, lie in wait throughout.
With the lightning quick WRC machines reaching speeds of more than 200kmh, avoid those hazards and hitting the endless bumps and humps at the right pace and angle is crucial to staying in the hunt.
Although he acknowledged an element of caution during difficult sections of some stages was key to his Argentinian success last year, Paddon indicated he would be a fulltilt everywhere else.