Hayden Paddon’s Hyundai Motorsport team has gone to work in the Coffs Harbour WRC Rally Australia service park repairing the bodywork damage that resulted from his flat tyre in the morning’s second stage.
The flailing left rear tyre damaged the rear door and wheel arch of the Kiwi’s Hyundai i20 with the biggest performance issue being the amount of dust sucked into the cabin of the car.
“We just ran a little bit wide on a corner and it popped the tyre off the rim,’’ said Paddon.
“It wasn’t a big hit really, it was just a bit unlucky for the tyre to come off the rim like that. It sums up the year in a sense.’’
The incident happened only 8km into the 31.94km Bucca stage and saw Paddon drive over 20km on the shredded tyre, losing almost a minute in the process.
“It happened at 8km and only a few kays later it completely delaminated. I tried to drive through as best as we could on three wheels.’’
Paddon now runs in fifth place with two short stages remaining. He trails Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo by 1.1secs and with a margin of 9.0secs over Norwegian driver Mads Ostberg (Ford Fiesta).