Hyundai men desperate to claw back points
Hyundai drivers Hayden Paddon and Andreas Mikkelsen are both in need of a win to bring their difficult seasons to a positive conclusion at Rally Australia this week.
Paddon’s future remains unclear, with an expected deal to stay in an i20 Coupe WRC for half the 2019 events still not completed. And the end of the year can’t come soon enough for Mikkelsen, who will struggle to take any positives away from 2018 without a solid performance in Coffs Harbour.
“It’s great to be back in the i20 again,” said Paddon, having stepped aside for Dani Sordo to drive last time out in Spain. “We’ve been building up our performance level as the season has progressed, so hopefully Australia will be the rally where we can pull the pin and really go for it. I want to end the season on a high. I like this event, it’s as close as it gets to a home rally for me, with plenty of Kiwis coming across the ditch to support us.”
Mikkelsen’s waited a long time to get to this event – his favourite of the season – and now he needs it to deliver for him.
“Australia has always been a good rally for us,” he said. “We won there in 2016 [with Volkswagen] and were leading after the opening day in 2017. Unfortunately we had to retire on the second day, but we are usually very fast. We’ve not had the season that we’d hoped so I want to end the year with a strong result. I don’t know what it is about Australia, I like the roads, but it’s more than that – I like the place and the people, everything about this event and that usually works for the result.”
Hyundai insists Mikkelsen’s position in the team remains for next season, but speculation to the contrary will only build further if he doesn’t end his run of ten rallies without a podium finish.