Hayden Paddon writes.....
Hi,
We have finished Rally Germany and have held on to our 2nd PWRC position, which I am very happy with. Leading into the event we were unsure what our pace would be, as this was our first tarmac rally, but, after spending the first day learning the feeling in the car, my confidence in the amount of grip on offer came very quickly.
Going into today we trailed Armindo Araujo by 23.8 seconds. The plan was to push on the first stage and see if we could make any inroads. It wasn't a perfect stage for us, but we did take 1.8 seconds from the lead, though we then dead heated on the next stage, meaning we arrived at service still 22.2 seconds behind with only two stages left. So the final stages were a matter of consolidating, but still keeping the pressure on, in case the leader made any mistakes. In the end we had a trouble free run and added a further 2 stage wins to our total tally of 6 stage wins for the weekend.
We remain in 3rd in the championship, but have closed in on second place Patrik Flodin, who was third here this weekend. However, we still have an extra nominated round up our sleeve over the two drivers ahead of us, so we will be aiming for maximum points in Japan with our own Team Green car, in just 3 weeks time.
The result has completely exceeded my expectations and we will head for our next Pirelli Star Driver round, which is also on tarmac (Rally France) with a lot of confidence on a surface that I really enjoy driving on. Something that has helped us a lot this weekend is our pace notes, which worked perfectly and a huge thanks to John, who did a great job, despite having to battle through a throat infection pre event. Also, a huge thanks to the Ralliart Italy and Pirelli teams, who did a great job all weekend and gave me a perfect car to drive and we had no problems with the car all weekend. It was great too that Dad and the family were here to cheer us on, waving the Kiwi flag as they camped on the side of the stages in their motor home.
Thanks everyone for all the messages of support that we had, it has been much appreciated! In the meantime, I will stay put in the UK until next Friday, when I fly out to Japan. Then after Japan I will return home for 10 days, before flying back for France.
Thanks again,
Hayden
