NEWS

Producing his best finish of the 2018 World Rally Championship ( WRC) season, Hayden Paddon pedalled his way to second at Coffs Harbour, Australia, last month. The result is the best that the Kiwi driver has achieved since doing the same in Poland back in July last year. Paddon laid out a solid drive all weekend, despite the wet weather on Sunday causing a few dramas, seeing 32.5 seconds shy of Toyota’s victorious Jari-Matti Latvala. Norwegian driver Mads Østberg came in 19.7 seconds behind Paddon to tie off the top three.

Of the win, Paddon said, “Yes! [I’m] really happy with this P2. We worked hard all weekend and felt great in the car. Made even more special by the amount of Kiwi support we had here. [It] was unreal — thanks everyone!”

In another statement, Paddon said, “This always feels good — hopefully we’ll get to do more of this next year.”

Fellow Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville failed to finish after clipping a tree, with three stages remaining. M-Sport’s Sébastien Ogier snuck into fifth place to clinch his sixth straight WRC title with one round to spare.

Paddon’s WRC career is currently on standby while everyone awaits confirmation of who will drive for Hyundai next season — if the rest of the team’s season finishes are anything to go by, Hyundai would do well to keep Paddon on to once more produce the results that he has this season.