Hayden Paddon: WRC Rally de Espana

We have completed Rally Spain in 8thoverall after a somewhat trying day on the gravel stages.

Moving to my favoured surface of gravel today I had high hopes to be competitive. However, as we had never driven the car on gravel before it was going to be a tall ask. We found that out on the first corner of the first stage.

The Ford Fiesta is a fantastic car and really enjoyable, however in gravel spec today it felt different to anything I have driven before. The huge suspension travel meant the car was moving around a lot and I found it difficult to build any confidence and have a good feel for the car.

During mid day service we made many changes to the car to help me get more of a feeling. These did improve things for the afternoon as we closed the gap to the front-runners, although still the car felt very foreign. Other than losing the brakes on the last stage, it was a relatively clean day for us.

This rally has all been about progression, and we have learnt a lot from it. We improved on tarmac from 1.5 seconds per km to 0.6 seconds per km and on gravel we improved from 2.6 seconds per km to 1.1 seconds per km. And we know exactly where the time loss is. However, it comes down to seat time and testing.

Nevertheless, it has been an amazing experience this weekend to be involved with the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team and we have enjoyed every minute of it. A huge thank you for all the support we have had especially from NZ – it has been humbling. Also a huge thanks to everyone that helped make this opportunity possible. It has also been great to have Dad, Katie, Lance and Kerrie here supporting and helping us this weekend along with several other kiwis.

So where to from here? We are currently uncertain. We want to be in a WRC car next year. This experience has taught us that we need more seat time in a WRC car, as we can be competitive. Now we must continue to work hard, evaluate this event, learn and become stronger from it.