WRC
Paddon’s “bittersweet” WRC podium return comes full circle
It may have come in bittersweet circumstances, but Hayden Paddon’s return to the FIA World Rally Championship podium after eight years marked a full-circle moment for the New Zealander.
Paddon and veteran co-driver John Kennard appeared set to finish a well-deserved fourth at last weekend’s Croatia Rally, only for that result to be upgraded to third after team-mate Thierry Neuville crashed out of the lead in dramatic fashion on the Wolf Power Stage.
In a bizarre twist of fate, it meant Paddon was back on a WRC podium for the first time since Rally Australia in 2018, where he and co-driver Sebastian Marshall guided a Hyundai i20 Coupe to second place behind then Toyota driver Jari-Matti Latvala. At the time, that event proved to be his final outing with Hyundai and at WRC’s top level.
Paddon had thought he would never return to rallying’s top tier, let alone the podium, before Hyundai offered him a surprise comeback this year, sharing the third i20 N Rally1 car alongside Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi.
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The two-time FIA European Rally Champion (2023 and 2024) said the podium brought mixed emotions after seeing the team lose a much-needed victory, and admitted it may take time for the result to truly sink in given the circumstances. For Kennard, it marked a first WRC podium since Rally Poland in 2016.
“I definitely didn’t think it was possible [to be back on the WRC podium], not as a driver anyway, but it is a full-circle moment that eight years later we are back on the podium. It has been one hell of a journey, not just the last eight years but the last 20 years,” said Paddon.
“It is a bittersweet podium. Firstly I’m gutted for the team as I know how much work is going on behind the scenes, and how much work everyone is putting in. They really deserve the victory and I’m sorry for Thierry as well.
“It is a surprise to be on the podium. It was never the expectation and we just stuck to our plan and we did that. It turned out to be one of those rallies where you had to survive, despite everything I said at the start when I said it wouldn’t be an attritional rally. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
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“It was a challenging asphalt rally and I think the difference at WRC level is that you have to be on the limit so much, and when you are on the limit, that is when mistakes happen more often, along with punctures and all sorts of things. It is a rally you need to treat with respect when conditions are like they were.
“The first thing for the weekend was to be within half a second of our team-mates per kilometre and we were able to do that. The next thing was to make it to the finish and pick up the pieces. I didn’t want to be picking up these pieces [after Neuville’s crash]. I think the podium part will sink in a bit later.”
