Paddon: Monte was the biggest challenge of my life

Hayden Paddon has talked of the battle he faced just to get to the start of last week’s Monte Carlo Rally.

The Kiwi hadn’t competed on the rally since he was involved in a fatal accident on the first stage of the 2017 event. When he was offered the opportunity to return to Hyundai Motorsport for this season, he knew the season-opener would be a tough one.

“Mentally, this has been the biggest challenge of my life for the last six weeks,” Paddon told DirtFish.

The 2017 accident happened when Paddon was caught out on an icy section of the opening stage – it was just those conditions he faced this time around.

“Conditions-wise, 100%,” he added. “But I’ve dreaded this event for six weeks since I got the call. I never wanted to come back to this place. Thursday night wasn’t easy because we were getting all the reports of black ice, we were getting the temperature readings and everything was like identical. I was thinking: ‘OK, here we go again…’

“I’ve tried to avoid it, but there hasn’t been any escaping it. I try and stay strong and I know what my job is to do and I’ve got to be a professional sportsman. You’re here as a professional, you’ve got to do a good job and you have to put that stuff aside.”

The two-time European Rally champion admitted getting to Sunday’s finish was a relief.

He said: “Obviously, it’s an amazing opportunity [to be back with Hyundai Motorsport] and I think, from this, I can move forward now – I feel like there’s a massive weight off my shoulders. To be fair, I probably should have come back here eight years ago because I thought I’d moved on – but then when you got told you’re coming back, that’s when everything happens again.”

Paddon was running seventh when the Kiwi-flagged i20 N Rally1 slid off the road on Saturday morning, dropping five minutes.

“We got to the finish,” he added, “that was obviously the first objective. Naturally I’m a competitive person and I knew there was going to be a big learning process. The conditions made that learning process a lot harder than what it should have been.

“We had some good splits, sometimes we were less than a second per kilometer from our team-mates.

“I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity we have and John and I are working as hard as we can to do the job for the team, but certainly underestimated the challenge of coming back to this particular event. It was a real-life lesson in overcoming your fear.

“But we also knew by just finishing, irrespective of the speed or position, we were the backup needed if Thierry [Neuville] or Adrien [Fourmaux] had any issues. With us there, we would still pick up the same manufacturers’ points for the team. We know our targets are different for our next rally, and we are ready for that.”

Neuville was quick to praise Paddon’s return, adding: “That was the most difficult you can face. It’s been very tough, but it’s good to have him back in the team and see him finishing the rally and giving some feedback as well.”

Esapekka Lappi takes over the third Hyundai next time out in Sweden, with Paddon and co-driver John Kennard expected to be back onboard for Croatia Rally in April.