We have successfully completed Rally Poland – finishing 8th overall and making some good progress from our last event in Sardegna.

The rally, which kicked off on Thursday afternoon threw several challenges at us. Including some very rough stages in Lithuania that were cancelled on the second run due to bad road conditions and some changeable weather on todays final stages.

Throughout the rally I learnt a lot about my driving and where I need to improve. On different stages I was trying some slightly different techniques – some which did and didn’t work but this is all part of the learning process. To also get so close to a stage win on Stage 4 (missed out by 0.7 seconds) was both a pleasant surprise but also a little frustrating to know it was so close.

Our speed throughout the weekend was much closer to both the leaders and our teammates. Some stages where the road was smoother and more flowing, we were competitive. However, when the road becomes a little more technical this is where we are currently loosing time. Our next event in Finland is generally fast – so this bodes well for us.

Leading into the rally our goals were for a top 10 and to close the gap to our teammate Thierry Neuville to an average of 0.5 seconds per km. Well we achieved both of these, so it is mission accomplished. Now for Finland it will be a new goal and a new level that will need to be reached.

Overall it was a very good weekend for the team, with all three i20 WRC cars finishing in the top 8, with Thierry finishing 3rd, Juho Hanninen 6th and ourselves 8th. This is a great boost for the whole team who are working tirelessly behind the scenes. A big thanks to the whole team.

It was again great to have several Kiwis here supporting us on the stages. It seems that no matter what part of the world we are in there are Kiwis.

Now we head back to NZ for 2 weeks for a series of sponsor events. Then it’s back on the big bird to Europe to conduct our Finland tests and at the end of July its time to go rallying again. I’m already busting to get back in the car.

You can see all our photos and videos from our weekend at both www.haydenpaddon.com or www.facebook.com/haydenpaddonwrc

Thanks for all your continued support and looking forward to taking the next step.