Hayden Paddon trails local Oliver Solberg by just 3.3 seconds in the Royal Rally of Scandinavia after an action-packed first nine stages.
Paddon topped two of Friday’s eight stages and never finished lower than fourth in any of the others to remain firmly in the hunt with eight special stages remaining on Saturday.
“We were trying to push,” he said. “We know when it gets rough, it doesn’t quite suit this car as well, so we were trying not to lose too much time.
“It was rough but it was more the big loose rocks that were the problem rather than the extra ruts. We were pushing and trying, and tomorrow should suit us better than today.”
Solberg, who won the 2023 edition of the event, entered the day two seconds behind the Kiwi following Thursday’s super special stage but made 1.9 seconds of that back on SS2, a 10.18 km pass of Gronlund.
The Swedish driver hit the front by topping SS3, going 3.2 seconds faster than Paddon, who was fourth.
The reigning European Rally Champion responded by winning SS4 and SS5 to sit 1.4 seconds behind Solberg mid-way through the day.
Martins Sesks was third, 7.3 seconds behind Paddon, ahead of Frank Tore Larsen and Mikko Heikkila. European Rally Championship leader Mathieu Franceschi was left languishing in eighth after stalling in Thursday’s Super Special Stage.
Solberg responded to win SS6, a second run on Gronlund but experienced the worst of localised rain on SS7, which was won by Heikkila, who climbed to third overall. More importantly, Paddon gained 1.3 seconds on his rival to trail by just 1.3 seconds with two stages on the day remaining.
Paddon flew a rally-best of 44 metres over the famed Colins Crest on SS8 but dropped 1.1 seconds on the leader on the run. Franceschi won the stage to climb to fourth overall.
Solberg topped Paddon by 0.9 seconds on the day’s final stage to enter the final day with a 3.3-second advantage.
Heikkila is 9.4 seconds behind in third, followed by Franceschi, another 4.2 seconds in arrears, and Sesks.
Saturday’s action begins with a 5.83 km pass on Olme, followed by runs at Lungsund (20.20 km), Angebackstrop (14.76 km), and Molnbacka (13.18 km).
Proceedings resume at 5.42 pm NZST and can be viewed live with a paid subscription on rally.tv.
