Kiwi rallying duo Hayden Paddon and John Kennard competed in their second European rally over the weekend, finishing sixth overall in Rally Liepaja.
Paddon wasn’t going for any records this time around, instead he gained valuable information about his newly acquired Hyundai i20 N Rally2 which he trialed different set-ups on in preparation for WRC Rally Estonia later this month.
“While P6 doesn’t look great on paper, without yesterdays spin it might have been very different. But that was never the target here – we learnt a lot about the car and have a direction going forward,” commented Paddon.
He experienced a spin during stage three where he made slight contact against a tree but only minor bodywork damage was done.
“The car was going left but I wanted to go right,” added Paddon.
The Kiwi missed out on a top five finish by just 6.3 seconds but overall, the New Zealander said it was a successful test rally.
Latvian driver Mārtiņš Sesks went on to win every single stage of Tet Rally Liepāja to secure a historic home victory on Sunday afternoon.
Sesks was in a league of his own and carried a 22.9sec lead into the final leg after winning all six of Saturday’s superfast speed tests.
He showed no intentions of letting off on Sunday, either. Another flawless performance earned the 22-year-old a clean sweep of fastest times and he arrived back at the finish in Liepāja city centre 1min 10.9sec clear of team-mate Efrén Llarena.
That result meant Sesks went on to make history as he became the first-ever driver to win every single stage of a European Rally Championship (ERC) rally.
We next join Paddon and Kennard at Rally Estonia for their first WRC2 rally on July 14 to 17.
