Hayden Paddon and John Kennard are in 11th place at the end of day two of WRC Rally Poland.
In just their second event with the Hyundai Motorsport team, the Kiwis were second-quickest and just 0.7 seconds off stage winner Andreas Mikkelsen through the 12.89km stage.
Paddon said he was surprised to record his career-best time because he thought he'd driven like a "pansy".
"I was pleased to set the second fastest time in this morning's first stage considering we still had pace in hand."
With ten stages ahead of them on Sunday, Paddon is feeling positive.
"Tomorrow's stages are a bit more like the two stages we did well on today so hopefully we can be competitive tomorrow as well," he said.
"Overall it's been not too bad a day. On the smoother stages where I feel comfortable, the speed's been quite good and feels nice and comfortable in the car with good, low risk sort of speed.
"When the road's smooth and to my liking, we're not too far away in terms of stage times."
