The New Zealanders successfully completed yesterday's final three special stages of the opening round of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship with two encouraging stage times - sixth-quickest and fifth-quickest - to finish 25th overall, a steady result given Paddon and Kennard had fallen to an unfamiliar 76th place after being forced to retire on the first day.
"A very trying weekend, but also a positive, character-building weekend for me,'' Paddon said yesterday after overcoming one last challenge in the form of a broken driveshaft on the final stage to make it to the finish.
"Some of the stages were harder than others, but I have thoroughly enjoyed tackling Monte's iconic stages and we were able to have some fun along the way. Of course coming here, we expected this to be our toughest rally for the year and it's certainly lived up to that expectation.
"At the same time, there are a lot of positives to take away from the weekend. We learnt a lot about the surfaces, the conditions, the tyre choices - all these things you really need experience of on this sort of rally to be successful here. We'll take that knowledge forward for when we come back in 12 months' time.''
Rally Monte Carlo was won by triple world champion Sebastien Ogier for the third year in a row for Volkswagen.
The Frenchman, who also won the final power stage for three bonus points, finished 1min 54.5sec clear of Norwegian team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen with Belgian Thierry Neuville third for Hyundai.
Ogier had started yesterday's final leg of rallying's most famous race through the snow and ice of the French Alps with a lead of nearly 2min and he maintained that comfortably through the final three stages.
His two main challengers had retired on Sunday - Britain's Kris Meeke damaging the gearbox on his Citroen DS3 while Finland's Jari-Matti Latvala slid into a ditch and broke his Volkswagen's suspension.
Latvala was also handed a suspended ban and €5000 ($NZ8300) fine after knocking over a spectator at low speed as he skidded off and then continuing briefly before retiring.
"I didn't see anything due to the smoke coming out of the engine and the mud on the windscreen after we came out of the ditch,'' the Finn said later.
The victory was Ogier's fourth in total in Monte Carlo, the Frenchman having also triumphed in 2009 when it featured as a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge rather than the World Rally Championship.
- Staff Reporter and Reuters
