Motorsport: Tanak leads as Paddon improves

Ott Tanak during Day Two of the WRC Germany on August 19. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon holds eighth place after the second day of Rally Germany while Estonian Ott Tanak leads.

Better conditions greeted the drivers on day two but drama still unfolded. Title joint leader Thierry Neuville damaged the rear of his Hyundai in an accident that forced him to retire and hand the initiative back to four-time reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier.
M-Sport Ford driver Tanak holds a 21.4s lead over Citroen's Andreas Mikkelsen with Ogier nearly 30 seconds back in the second M-Sport Ford.

Paddon is the leading Hyundai in eighth in what has become a disastrous event for the team as they attempt to chase down M-Sport's lead in the manufacturers' standings.

From a personal point of view however Saturday was a big improvement from the Kiwi.

"Today's been a much better day," Paddon said. "Obviously with the conditions being drier, it was easier to drive with good confidence and actually able to enjoy the stages today. Unfortunately we picked up another puncture on the long Panzerplatte, the first pass, and had to stop and change. We lost almost two minutes, so okay the result was already a bit far behind after yesterday and then this puncture today just made the situation a little worse.

"But in saying that, the performance has been much better today. We've been able to set several top three stage times, we've have many good competitive split times and this is very encouraging, especially moving forward to the rallies coming up on tarmac which are more to my liking with dry and good grip which gives us confidence.

"I think we've made some steps forward. We're certainly more competitive here this year than what we were last year on these dry stages, and if you take our punctures out of the equation, then we would be up in the top five fighting. We have to look at the positives.

"Tomorrow we'll try some different things on the car, use this as a bit of a live test session, see if we can improve some things with both the car setup and my driving and use that for the next rally on tarmac in Spain."

Four further stages await drivers on Sunday night.