Cromwell-based Paddon and co-driver John Kennard were fourth after the final stage but later elevated to third when original winner Teemu Suninen was disqualified for having an underweight bumper.
"We had a plan for the event of setting a top-five pace, which is more or less where we were at," Paddon said.
"The local drivers were very fast and times are super close. Overall, it was a good clean event.
"We felt much better in the car but also managed the risks to ensure we could take a damage-free car back to New Zealand.
"To get promoted to P3 was a surprise; certainly not the way we want to achieve a podium, but given the amount of sweat and tears we have poured into this as a small Kiwi team, it’s a result we will take."
The Hyundai New Zealand Rally team was in Finland to help Paddon run the i20 N Rally 2 car, in which the Kiwis were only competing for a second time.
The team has been working on a series of developments to the car to bring it in line with Paddon’s preferred driving style and performance objectives.
Lining up among 17 competitors in the WRC2 category, the New Zealanders got off to a steady start with a clean run through the opening super special stage and a solid run through nine stages in the forests northeast of host city Jyvaskyla to hold sixth overnight.
Paddon and Kennard went into Sunday’s stages with less than 50sec separating them in sixth from then-leader Suninen.
After some top-three times and splits on the longer stages, and a consistent drive as others dropped out, the pair moved into fourth position on the leaderboard, less than 15sec from third place.
The final day included four special stages, each just over 10km in length, when most competitors drive to maintain their finishing position.
That was also Paddon’s goal, and he was pleased to bring the car home in fourth.
"We have come a long way with the car since Latvia, investing much time from the team, and the car felt much better.
"There is still more to find, but we are going in a good direction, which is pleasing.
"The team is on their way back to New Zealand now and I’m heading to Austria to prepare the car for airfreight, so it will be back for Rally New Zealand at the end of September."
