Paddon and co-driver John Kennard, one of three Hyundai Motorsport crews contesting the three-day rally, will enter the event for the fourth time - a welcome level of experience to counteract the fact it is Paddon's first tarmac event in the Hyundai i20 WRC car.
Based in Salou, the rally is the season's only mixed-surface event. Tomorrow's opening leg is predominantly gravel and the second and third legs entirely asphalt.
''Spain is a rally I really enjoy and the tarmac stages are the closest that you will get to a race track - fast, wide and smooth,'' Paddon said, after testing the cars on tarmac with Hyundai Motorsport team-mates Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo.
Paddon said it was a ''pleasure to drive a WRC car on these roads'' and, counting in his favour, he was able to experience the same level of driver satisfaction in 2013.
''We were lucky to have debuted in a WRC car here last year, so that experience will help us a lot as John and I have good pace notes that we have worked on over the last couple of weeks,'' Paddon said.
''Also, having the gravel stages on day one this year will make the transition easier - it's easier to go from gravel to tarmac in terms of your driving, compared to vice versa.''
With four strong finishes in the four events he has contested under the Hyundai Motorsport banner this year, Paddon is focusing on achieving a credible result in Spain.
''This will be our first tarmac rally with the Hyundai i20 WRC, so we are a little behind Thierry and Dani, who have both recently done two tarmac events in Germany and France and are both regarded as tarmac specialists.''
''So we would like to challenge to be in the top seven, while keeping in mind that with 16 WRC entrants, the competition here is huge. There's no doubt our two team-mates are perfect benchmarks against which to judge our performance.''
The 50th Rally of Spain sees American X-Games and stunt-driving star Ken Block make his sole WRC appearance this season in his Fiesta RS.
WRC entries are spread across four manufacturers, with a total of three Hyundai i20s (Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo, Hayden Paddon), seven Ford Fiesta RS cars (Mikko Hirvonen, Elfyn Evans, Robert Kubica, Yuriy Protasov, Ken Block, Henning Solberg, Martin Prokop), three Volkswagen Polo RS (Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala, Andreas Mikkelsen), and three Citroën DS3s (Kris Meeke, Mads Ostberg, Khalid Al Qassimi).
