21 May 2017

Paddon out of Rally of Portugal

8:53 am on 21 May 2017

The New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon has been forced out of the Rally of Portugal.

Hayden Paddon during the 2016 World Rally Championship rally in Spain.

Hayden Paddon during the 2016 World Rally Championship rally in Spain. Photo: AFP

It was a disastrous event for the New Zealand, after suffering electrical problems with his Hyundai yesterday, he broke his steering today.

Paddon was 24th overall yesterday and started well today, but the mechanical on special stage 13 forced a premature retirement.

Paddon commented: "What can I say? It just seems our bad luck continues. We started this morning's loop in a positive frame of mind despite the issues we had yesterday. The team worked hard to replace the loom on the car to allow us to continue under Rally 2."

"We knew it would be tough as second on the road, but we were determined to push and have some fun. I enjoyed it! We had some good sideways moments and put on a good show for the fans. The times were never going to be representative with all the cleaning we had to do."

"Then, in the afternoon, our luck turned once again as we experienced a steering problem that ended the day early. Not a lot more to add, other than we'll try to have a trouble-free final day tomorrow."

They will drive tomorrow's final stages but are out of contention for a result.