Paddon tackles Corsica’s 10,000 turns
Kiwi rally ace Hayden Paddon will have his hands full this weekend on the twisting tarmac surface of Corsica.
The famed Tour de Corse is better known as the ‘rally of 10,000 corners’.
Paddon said he and co-driver John Kennard are focused on continually improving their performance on their least preferred tarmac surface.
‘‘Obviously we want to be more competitive than Germany [fifth] and I think this rally suits us better, but the goals are not result driven.
‘‘It’s about improvement and progress to be competing at the front in the future.’’
It is only the second time that the Kiwi duo have contested the Corsican island rally after it returned to the WRC calendar last year.
They finished in fifth place on the rain-interrupted 2015 edition.
Paddon said it was a pleasure to drive the Corsican roads.
‘‘This is what I would call a more traditional tarmac rally with wider roads, twisting but flowing.
‘‘The grip levels are often consistent and you can refer to more a circuit racing type of driving style.’’
This year, 70 per cent of the special stages are new and the total stage distance is 20 per cent longer.
Paddon is not however con- cerned. ‘‘Corsica is Corsica. It’s called the ‘rally of 10,000 corners’ for a reason as it’s constant corner after corner and most look the same.
‘‘That’s why pace notes are more important than ever on this rally, something John and I work very hard on.’’
Paddon said it was certainly a unique itinerary, with less but longer stages.
While the Tour de Corse has the smallest number of stages on the WRC calendar with 10, it is second only to Rally Mexico in terms of its total competitive distance at 390.92 kilometres.
‘‘But that doesn’t change our approach – we have to be on it from start to finish.’’
Kennard said the huge number of corners means the average speed is very low, just over 90kmh, compared to 126kmh in Finland.‘‘But it also means the info coming from the notes is quite relentless and the moments to breath when reading them are sometimes quite few.’’
Paddon and Kennard’s lack of experience on tarmac sees them compete in Hyundai second team while team-mates Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo race in the colours of Hyundai Shell World Rally Team.
In the nine WRC rounds so far this season there have been seven different winners, including Paddon in Argentina. Defending champion and current leader Sebastien Ogier is the only driver to have won more than once, with three wins to his name.
Ogier has an almost unbeatable lead in the race for the title with four rounds left. He sits on 169 points, with fellow Volkswagen driver Andreas Mikkelsen on 110.
Paddon and Hyundai teammate Neuville are tied in third on 94 points but in striking distance of second place. The Tour de Corse will see Norwegian Mads Ostberg will become the 26th WRC driver to reach 100 starts.
The list is headed by Carlos Sainz on 196, while the most experienced current driver is JariMatti Latvala who has started 165 rounds to place him fourth in the list.
The rally officially gets underway with a start ceremony on Thursday evening (French time) on the west coast of the island before Friday’s schedule covers 157km of special stages.