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PADDON MAKES STATEMENT VICTORY AT HOME WRC RALLY

By Timothy Neal

Date posted: October 2, 2022

Hayden Paddon took a dominant victory in the WRC2 class at the Rally New Zealand outing, leading from start to finish to win by 2:33.1s.

Polish driver Kajetan Kajetanowicz captured P2, with Shane van Gisbergen rounding out the podium third, competing in his dream hometown rally, and WRC debut.

Australian champion Harry Bates came in P4 behind the Supercars star in his own WRC debut, some +3:22.8s behind, with all four of those WRC2 drivers making it inside the outright top 10 in a heavily rain affected rally.

Van Gisbergen was a popular drawcard in his home WRC debut, capturing a podium third in the WRC2. Photo: Motorsport Images

With Bates being an Australian Champion and currently dominating the 2022 ARC standing’s, it’s a clear indication of just how versatile van Gisbergen is as a race car driver. Throw in the extremely tough conditions that drivers faced in this NZ outing, it serves as another reminder to just how much of competitive beast the Supercars Champion really is.

Paddon finished in P6 outright, +10:03,7s behind WRC regular and Swede, Oliver Solberg. Whilst Kajetanowicz, van Gisbergen and Bates finished in P8,P9, and P10 respectively.

With three stage wins on the final day, the five-time NZ Rally Champion, and 2011 PWRC World Champion was too good in his Hyundai , and now sits in second place in the WRC2 standings behind Andreas Mikkelsen.

“This is everything we wanted, It was what we were expected to do and what I expected,” said Paddon confidently.

Bates finished a respectable P4 behind van Gisbergen in the Aussie champs WRC debut. Photo: Motorsport Images

“When you have a bit of a lead on day one, it puts the pressure on you to not make mistakes so we just tried to keep it clean.”

Van Gisbergen would be elated with his podium, but knows he was good enough to challenge for P2, if it weren’t for an untimely tyre puncture during yesterday’s outing, to eventually finish a respectable +52s down on the Polish regular.

German driver Armin Kremer rounded out the top five, finishing +4:10.2s behind Bates to top the WRC2 Masters Cup outright, and take the lead in the Masters championship.

WRC2 Rally New Zealand Standings

  1. Paddon/Kennard                       2:58.05.1
  2. Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak      +2:33.1
  3. Van Gisbergen/Weston            +0:52.0
  4. Bates/McCarthy                         +3:22.8
  5. Kremer/E.Kremer                     +4:10.2

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the latest edition of AUTO ACTION.

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