Paddon slips on frustrating day
‘ We’re still right in this and we’ll solve things.’
WHAT began as a promising start to the first full day of Rally Mexico ended in frustration for Kiwi Hayden Paddon.
Citroen’s Kris Meeke claimed his first stage win of 2017 in yesterday’s opener and grabbed another in the seventh stage to take a 20.9sec lead over four-time champion Sebastien Ogier.
Organisers were forced to cancel the opening two stages in Leon due a serious motorway accident involving non-rally vehicles that caused a long delay for competitors getting to the start line.
After finishing fifth in the Mexico City super special stage on Friday (NZ time), Paddon looked set to climb up the leaderboard as he spent most of the day in the top three.
However, a technical problem saw the Hyundai lose 1min 45sec to fall to seventh overall.
‘‘The rally [proper] got off to not a bad start, sitting in top three position,’’ Paddon said.
‘‘A little bit of a surprise as we were struggling with a few little issues, but the times were still not bad, so there was a bit of confidence to take away from that.
‘‘But unfortunately, a technical problem struck down the three cars in the team which, at the end of the day, cost us a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, we’re still here. The guys are going to work hard overnight to try and rectify the problem so we can come back out tomorrow.’’
Haddon wasn’t the only one to suffer mechanical woes as extremely hot temperatures caused several engines to overheat, including that of championship leader Jari-Matti Latvala.
Paddon’s team-mate Theirry Neuville also had his issues, yet still managed to win stages five and six to move into third place.
‘‘We’ve seen the conditions are very tough; it’s going to be very hard,’’ Paddon added. ‘‘A long day tomorrow; we’re still right in this and we’ll solve things tonight to come back out fighting tomorrow.’’