Australia WRC: Charging Paddon eats into Mikkelsen's lead
Hyundai's Hayden Paddon was quickest on the first run of the 50km Nambucca stage and jumped from fourth to second in the overall classification, 13.4s behind leader Andreas Mikkelsen.
Hayden Paddon, John Kennard, Hyundai i20 WRC, Hyundai Motorsport
Hyundai Motorsport
The Norwegian was 10 seconds slower than Paddon in SS12, even though the latter spent the stage with dust inside his car.
"Right from the first corner we had dust billowing into the car. I was distracted in a few places but I just tried to forget about it," said Paddon.
"I thought maybe the rear door was open, but perhaps it's a hole somewhere under the car."
Paddon covered the holes in his car for SS13, topped by Jari-Matti Latvala, but was just a tenth ahead of Mikkelsen.
Sebastien Ogier dropped behind Paddon to sit third overall, shadowing the Hyundai driver by three seconds with Thierry Neuville a further 23s down.
Mads Ostberg continued to hold fifth while his M-Sport teammate Eric Camilli dropped behind Dani Sordo.
Standings after SS13:
Pos. | Driver/Co-driver | Car | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Volkswagen Polo R | 1h34m51.6s | |
2 | Hyundai NG i20 | +13.4s | |
3 | Volkswagen Polo R | +16.6s | |
4 | Hyundai NG i20 | +39.6s | |
5 | Mads Ostberg Ola Fløene |
Ford Fiesta RS | +46.7s |
6 | Hyundai NG i20 | +1m00.9s | |
7 |
Eric Camilli Benjamin Veillas |
Ford Fiesta RS | +1m05.0s |
8 | Ott Tanak Raigo Molder |
Ford Fiesta RS | +1m37.3s |
9 |
Lorenzo Bertelli Simone Scattolin |
Ford Fiesta RS | +3m38.4s |
10 |
Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm |
Skoda Fabia R5 | +4m05.6s |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments