Remarkable opening for Paddon in Paraguay
- 29th August 2026, 7:46am
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by Luke Whitten
New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are fighting for the lead at WRC Rally del Paraguay on their first Rally1 gravel start.
Sitting in second overnight, they’re just 11.9 seconds from the rally lead, but had held the top position before two punctures cost them significant time.
It was a day that wreaked havoc among all crews, as Paddon put simply.
“We all had our problems today, and it’s been a real day of management,” he said.
“We’re not pushing flat out, so obviously it’s a surprise that [we] win a stage this morning and be on the pace that we have been. It’s a nice surprise, but the rally I think is only just getting started.”
Meanwhile, Australians Taylor Gill and Daniel Brkic are sitting seventh in WRC2 after a puncture dropped them down the leaderboard on the final proper stage of the day.
They had been lying in ninth overall and fourth in class; however, the tyre delamination cost them dearly.
At the day’s conclusion, they’re seventh in WRC2, but within 25 seconds of fourth.
However, Friday’s action was only chapter one. Rain is scheduled to fall tomorrow, with predictions varied.
“I know about as much as anybody else, which is not a lot,” Paddon shared. “I think we’re all expecting incredibly slippery conditions. 11 seconds is going to be nothing. Even a minute or two might mean nothing.”
“Let’s see – first [we’ll] go on thinking for the worst-case scenario, then we’ll prepare for it, and then, hey, maybe we might get surprised by better conditions than what we expect.
“It’s going to be a lot more unpredictable. Okay, today, the stage conditions were actually okay. Obviously, we’re just all having to manage the tyres, but tomorrow, it’s going to be changing from corner to corner.
“The worst thing is going to be the braking zones, especially hitting the braking zones. You can touch the brakes, and the car might accelerate, and we have no idea where those places are. But we’re all going to be exploring it for the first time, so I guess it’s even-stevens in that respect.”
Saturday’s leg is more spread out than the rally’s opening stanza. The opening stage of the leg will run tonight at 9:19pm AEST, while the last stage of the day will run at 7:05am AEST the following morning.
