Hyundai Motorsport driver Hayden Paddon put in a strong warning shot to his fellow competitors as he topped the times in the FIA World Rally Championship shakedown for the 2016 Rally Argentina.
Paddon took his New Generation i20 WRC for three runs through the shakedown stage and finished nearly one and a half seconds ahead of VW Motorsport driver Jari-Matti Latvala who pipped team-mate Sébastien Ogier by less than a second.
The VW of Andreas Mikkelsen split the two Hyundai’s of Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville in the times ahead of Ott Tänak in the DMACK-entered Ford Fiesta RS WRC, with M-Sport’s Mads Østberg rounding out the top eight. Belgian Neuville suffered a puncture on his first run and a puncture on his third run.
Argentinian driver Marcos Ligato piloted his Citroën DS3 WRC to ninth place as he took two runs through the shakedown stage ahead of Henning Solberg and Eric Camilli who maximised their testing with five attempts at the stage.
WRC 2 leader Elfyn Evans was forced to stop after a sensor, leading him to set a time over eleven minutes.
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