New Zealand rally driver Hayden Paddon saw his overnight lead in his class of the Rally of Portugal quickly evaporate when his Skoda stopped just 1.5km into the day's first stage because of an electrical fault.
Paddon and co-driver John Kennard finished day one of the three-and-a-half day event with a lead of nearly 25 seconds over closest rival Craig Breen, the current SWRC category leader.
Breen has now retired, leaving Saudi driver Yazeed Al Rajhi heading the SWRC category in Portugal. Paddon is fourth in SWRC but says "all is not lost yet''. He will re-start the rally on day three.
Under SupeRally regulations, Paddon will still appear on the results table - he will receive a stage time of the fastest competitor in the SWRC class plus five minutes.
"We don't know the exact cause yet, but we will get the car fixed to rejoin tomorrow under SupeRally rules and therefore get valuable championship points,'' Paddon said.
"The scenes here in Portugal are unlike any other rally. Three of today's six stages have been cancelled after a lot of overnight rain has caused the roads to be treacherous and many competitors have retired.''
Rally Portugal organisers cancelled half of the day's stages for safety reasons due to the extreme wet weather.
Citroen's new recruit, Mikko Hirvonen, inherited the lead in the Rally of Portugal after Ford duo Jari-Matti Latvala and Petter Solberg spun off in treacherous conditions.
