Fresh from his debut World Rally Championship podium in Sardinia in June, Paddon took an intentionally conservative run in the opening super special stage.
Saturday's 155km itinerary was different in that instead of the opportunity to service their cars after the morning stages, all crews were limited to just a tyre change part way through the eight competitive stages.
Paddon and co driver John Kennard set a number of top four stage times to progress steadily up the event's leaderboard and finish Saturday in fifth position.
''We struggled initially to pick up a rhythm and the pace notes were not working as well as we'd hoped,'' Paddon said.
''Things didn't really gel as I had expected but we had some better runs this afternoon with a good tyre choice, particularly using the hard tyres on the long stage.''
Paddon and Kennard ripped through yesterday's 17.7km opener just 1.3sec off Sebastien Ogier's stage winning pace, and with more top five stage times, their hold on fifth place overall was solid.
''We're happy to hold on to position and build up a little bit more of a gap behind,'' Paddon said.
''It's been a bit challenging. The first couple of stages went well, and then we struggled a bit in the second two.''
Officials cancelled stage 14 for safety reasons with the huge crowds. Paddon then delivered another second fastest stage time in the 15th stage, along with some further consistent top five times to finish the day with a strong hold on fifth place.
He was 36.6sec behind Jari Matti Latvala in fourth, and 19.4sec ahead of team mate Thierry Neuville in sixth.
