Hyundai to remain at three i20 racers
Hyundai has confirmed it has no plans to run a fourth i20 Coupe WRC on any further rounds of this year’s World Rally Championship.
There had been speculation that, following Dani Sordo’s strong start to the season – which has included two podiums and two fourth places from the last four rallies – the Spaniard might be seen in action more often this season.
Team principal Michel Nandan said Hyundai will stick to its plan for Sordo and Hayden Paddon sharing the third car from here until the end of the year.
Nandan said: “We didn’t have the budget to run the fourth car in Portugal, but we had to split the third car and we wanted to do it equally: we didn’t want one driver to do seven rallies and one to do six.”
Asked if they would consider repeating the split programme next season, Nandan replied: “Now the contracts with our drivers is up at the end of the year, it’s early, but so far we don’t know what we will do.”
Paddon takes the third Hyundai for the next two rallies in Sardinia and Finland before handing it back to Sordo for Germany.
Nandan added: “It’s true to say they are fighting for their seat, so far they are doing the job we expected them to – Dani has done a very good job, but Hayden has not been in the car much yet. But Argentina rally was the best Dani did for a long time, he was always there, always pushing and always motivated.”