New Zealand driver Hayden Paddon says his second place in the Rally of Paraguay “almost feels like a win.”

The Hyundai driver, who lives in Cromwell, was on the leaderboard for the majority of the event in what was his first top level WRC gravel start since 2018.

He and co-driver John Kennard briefly led on the first day and remained Finn Sami Pajari’s closest challenger for the rest of the event, finishing 25.8 seconds behind him.

“We did our job this weekend and this second almost feels as good as a win particularly given the journey we’ve been on as well,” Paddon said.

The pair competed in four events this year as a part of Hyundai’s plan to have three different combinations share their third car.

The first three were all on tarmac. They finished 11th in Monaco, third in Croatia and seventh in Japan.

Paddon said they had little time in the car to prepare for his favoured surface of gravel in Paraguay.

“The car is still a little bit foreign [to me]. It has been very good on gravel, it just needs a bit of fine tuning for my driving style and I’ve learnt a lot about the car this weekend.”

It was an unusual season for Paddon who signed a deal to race just a handful of rallies.

“We always knew it was going to be tough jumping straight into the car, but probably surprised myself with how we did adjust.

“I was quite happy with the progress we made on tarmac. I knew we were always given a tough opportunity with the rallies that we had but on the back of that we then got the reward of this rally.”

Paddon said he can feel satisfied with his WRC outing this year.

“This one feels like a proper podium,” said Paddon. “A lot of people had written us off, but a lot of people believed in me and we believed in ourselves,” he told WRC.

“This goes to show you never ever give up. Dream, dare to believe in your dream, and I can’t believe we’re back here in this full circle.”

Finnish driver Sami Pajari in a Toyota won the Rally of Paraguay to create history.

He and co-driver Marko Salminen became the first crew whose first three WRC wins came consecutively.

Pajari is now third in the drivers’ championship, 20 points behind Elfyn Evans with three rounds remaining.

Paddon is eighth in the standings.

He now returns home to race the Ashley Forest Rally next month.