WRC
Hayden Paddon Rally de Portugal final summary
Hayden Paddon press release
Edited: Apr 3, 2012, 11:29 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Paddon and Kennard take surprise win SWRC in Portugal
Hayden Paddon and Johnathan Kennard, Skoda Fabia
Photo by: xpb.cc
Hayden Paddon, with co-driver John Kennard, has taken an unexpected but valuable victory in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship in Portugal overnight.
The production world champion Kiwis looked to be out of contention on Friday when an electrical fault grounded their New Zealand World Rally Team Skoda Fabia. Restarting on Saturday, Paddon won every on of that day’s six stages to move into third in class.
Then on Sunday, Paddon and Kennard quickly moved into second place behind category leader Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi. However Al Rajhi’s lead of almost nine minutes looked insurmountable for the Kiwi pair until a broken cross-member on Al Rajhi’s Ford gave Paddon the opportunity he was looking for.
“We wanted to come here to win, but we didn’t win it like we wanted to,” said Paddon who had to contend with an alternator wire fault on Sunday’s third stage before taking his first win in the SWRC category.
“We’re happy though and I’ve always said to finish first, first you have to finish. There’s a lot more to come from the car and from me. We’re looking forward to Brother Rally New Zealand for the next round in June.”
The win in Portugal – Paddon’s second event in his 2012 SWRC campaign – gives him 37 points, just six points behind SWRC championship leader Craig Breen.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Citroen Technologies Rally de Portugal final summary
Next article Brazil WRT Rally de Portugal final summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
Latest news
Aprilia: “Marco Bezzecchi couldn’t avoid the collision; Marc Marquez moved in on him"
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
55 min
Aprilia: “Marco Bezzecchi couldn’t avoid the collision; Marc Marquez moved in on him"
How the Racing Bulls pendulum is swinging back towards undeniable Liam Lawson
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
How the Racing Bulls pendulum is swinging back towards undeniable Liam Lawson
How Max Verstappen beat Red Bull's own simulation tools with P2 in Brazil
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
How Max Verstappen beat Red Bull's own simulation tools with P2 in Brazil
Feature
Discover prime content
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.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe