The New Zealand driver Hayden Paddon is in fifth place overall heading into Sunday's final stages at the Rally of Australia.
The New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Paddon made a bid to move up the leader-board during yesterday's morning stages, securing two stage wins in succession - bringing his WRC stage win total to seven.
Having started yesterday in sixth place, 25.5 sec away from then rally leader Jari-Matti Latvala, Paddon and Kennard blitzed the field in the monster 50.8 km Nambucca stage.
The pair opted for the right tyres - hard - winning the stage by a 4.6 sec margin to Andreas Mikkelson, slashing their margin to the new rally leader, Kris Meeke, to 11.3 sec and moving into fifth overall.
Paddon again went fastest in the following 7.94 km stage, but such was the pace of the leading WRC competitors, Paddon stayed in fifth overall, but reduced his margin to 9.3 seconds behind leader Meeke.
The afternoon's repeated runs of the two stages saw Paddon content with a gear selector issue and, through the last part of the Nambucca stage, worn tyres.
Despite his margin to leader Meeke easing out to 19.0 seconds, Paddon continued to hold fifth.
And with a fifth quickest time in the night-time running of the final 7.94 km stage, the New Zealander remains handily-placed in fifth overall.
At the day's end, Paddon said, "I'm pretty happy with how today has gone. I felt much more comfortable and confident in the car this morning and we resolved the issues we had yesterday afternoon."
"We made some set-up changes and I have been able to drive the car in the way I like."
"The second loop wasn't ideal because we wore down the tyres too much in the long Nambucca stage and we lost around 10 seconds in the last 20km. Still, it's been a good day. We're fifth overall and, although it will be hard to catch the leaders on outright pace, we'll try to keep the pressure on."