Preparation key in rally of 10,000 corners

Hayden Paddon.
Hayden Paddon.
Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard have been poring over their pace notes this week as they prepare for the tarmac Tour de Corse WRC event in Corsica, dubbed the rally of 10,000 corners.

Paddon said more work than their normal extremely thorough preparation had been necessary and the spectacular event's nickname was ''an understatement''.

''Very twisty and technical which demands a lot from the pace notes.''

Paddon's focus is on continually improving their performance on tarmac surface rallies. The French World Rally Championship event, which runs from tomorrow until Sunday, marks the second of three consecutive European tarmac rallies at the tail end of the WRC season. Performance on this surface is a vital component of Paddon's current and future results.

He and Kennard hold third-equal place on the drivers' and co-drivers' championship points tables respectively, matching Hyundai Motorsport team-mates Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul.

''Obviously, we want to be more competitive than Germany [where they finished fifth] and I think this rally suits us better, but the goals are not result-driven. It's about improvement and progress to be competing at the front in the future,'' Paddon said.

This is just the second time that he and Kennard have contested the Corsican rally. It returned to the WRC calendar last year. The Kiwis secured fifth place on the rain-interrupted 2015 edition.

Paddon said Corsican roads were a pleasure to drive on.

''This is what I would call a more traditional tarmac rally with wider roads, twisty but flowing. The grip levels are often consistent and you can refer to more a circuit racing type of driving style.''

This year, 70% of the special stages are new and the total stage distance is 20% longer. Despite still only having 10 special stages - the fewest on the calendar - Tour de Corse is second only to Rally Mexico in terms of its total competitive distance at 390.92 km.

''Yes, a lot of the route is new but Corsica is Corsica. It's called the rally of 10,000 corners for a reason as it's constant corner after corner and most look the same. That's why pace notes are more important than ever on this rally, something John and I work very hard on,'' Paddon said.

Kennard added that the huge number of corners meant the average speed was very low - just over 90 kmh, compared to 126 kmh in Finland.

''But it also means the info coming from the notes is quite relentless and the moments to breath when reading them are sometimes quite few,'' Kennard said.

Since Rally Germany in mid-August, Paddon has continued to work on his tarmac driving skills.

''With the long gap between Germany and Corsica, it's been a good chance to refresh a little, especially because the next five weeks are going to be crazy busy with four rallies and four tests.

This down time allowed us to investigate a bit what happened in Germany and work on some things to improve from that rally. We have also had some good test sessions with the team,'' he said.

Tomorrow's schedule covers 157km of special stages - two stages tackled twice with the added challenge of teams not having a midday service.

Saturday is the longest with two loops of two stages totalling 169.04 km. Sunday's final morning of action in the east comprises just two stages, but includes the longest of the entire rally, the 53.78 km Antisanti-Poggio di Nazza, which will prove decisive before the 10.42 km rally-concluding power stage.

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