Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard have extended their European Rally Championship lead over Mārtiņš Sesks to 36 points after finishing second in this weekend’s Royal Rally of Scandinavia in Sweden.
Hometown hero Oliver Solberg won the event, topping the Kiwi by 22.5 seconds, while Sesks was third, a further 47 seconds behind.
Solberg and Paddon would win each of the 16 stages between themselves, with the Kiwi, driving BRC Racing Team’s Hyundai i20 N, topping six in comparison to Solberg’s 12.
The duo shared the opening day’s eight stages, with the Kiwi taking a narrow 0.4-second lead on SS1 to begin the rally. He would extend this by a further 2.1 seconds on SS2 before Solberg took the overall lead on SS3 with a 1.8-second gap to the Kiwi.
He would extend this by a further 2.1 seconds on SS4, only for Paddon to top the time sheets on SS5 and eat 1.2 seconds into the local driver’s lead.
Solberg would respond to top each of the day’s final three runs to head into Day 2 with a 10.2-second gap to Paddon, with third-placed Frank Tore Larsen a further 35 seconds behind.
Saturday’s opening SS9 saw Mikko Heikkilä take third off Larsen, before a spectacular end-over-end rollover for the latter, on SS10, removed him from contention.
Paddon would begin the day with SS9 honours, backing that up the very next stage but unable to eat significant time into Solberg’s lead.
Solberg topped the next four runs and made a massive 10-second gain over Paddon on SS15 as the Kiwi driver looked to preserve his tyres ahead of the Power Stage.
Elsewhere, Sesks had slowly crept up the leaderboard from his overnight position of sixth in an attempt to limit his losses to the championship leader.
Saving his tyres earlier worked wonders for Paddon on the Power Stage, with the Kiwi taking a haul of championship points away from the second passing of Colins, a run known for its ‘Colins Crest’ jump where competitors fly in excess of 40 meters.
Sesk would score points in second on the Power Stage, as would Solberg in third.
Paddon has finished second in the last four ERC events off the back of his Rally Serras de Fafe victory in Portugal to open his campaign.
“So far, so good, we have to keep building on it, can’t say I’m the biggest fan of being 2nd all the time, but it’s working well,” he said following SS16. “Thanks to the Kiwis and the team that came out here, and fair play to Oliver. He’s done an excellent job. We’ve picked up some Power Stage points so that’s good.”
