Hayden Paddon had an inconsistent opening day for Hyundai at the 2016 Tour de Corse – Rallye de France, but still managed to finish Day 1 in sixth.
Inconsistency cost the Kiwi on the opening stage, leaving him down in fifth place after the opening stage.
A solid effort in the afternoon stages, hampered by a puncture and his overheated tyres leaves Paddon down in sixth place after Day 1 in Corsica and is firmly in the mix for a top-five result.
Paddon said “I’m definitely feeling more comfortable on these Corsican stages in the dry conditions we have had today. It’s not been a perfect day but we can see some positives, as well as some places to improve.
“We needed some adjustments to our pace notes after the opening run. The car was sliding around too much but we found a better direction for the repeat loop. It was a case of building things up step by step.
“We were doing precisely that but we had a puncture 8km from the end of the final stage, which lost us a bit of time. We’ll just work to take the positives from today forward into the rest of the weekend and see if we can break into the top-five.”
