Hayden Paddon has a clear goal in Italy this weekend.
The defending FIA European Rally champion heads to Rally di Roma Capitale aiming to protect and, ideally, extend his lead in this year’s championship.
Paddon took the ERC lead at the previous round in Estonia earlier this month and now has 73 points.
The Cromwell-based driver is just 10 points ahead of second-placed Frenchman Mattieu Franchesci, while Norway’s Mads Ostberg holds third place with 53 points going into this Italian event.
"Both Mathieu and Mads will be fast, especially Mathieu, who has made a big step up this year,’’ Paddon told Hyundai NZ.
‘‘In terms of overall rally results, we know the local Italian ERC drivers are very fast, as they were last year, but our focus will be on our main rivals for championship points.
"We would love to repeat last year’s podium result in Rome, but we have seen how competitive the field is this year. It’s definitely going to be a challenge this weekend, but extending our championship lead is the key goal."
Paddon and experienced co-driver John Kennard are the No1 seeds for the running of the high-speed asphalt rally, which is the fifth of eight rounds of this year’s ERC.
The pair have joined their BRC Racing team-mates to conduct a short pre-event test with the Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car.
"We will utilise last year’s data from this rally alongside what we learnt from Canaries Rally this year to try and find some better settings for the car in these conditions.
‘‘We need to keep working hard trying to find more performance, as other teams and cars are getting faster."
The rally starts on Saturday morning (NZ time) with an opening super special stage near the Colosseum.
Drivers then tackle 189km of special stages around the rally base in Fiuggi, a thermal spa town southeast of Rome.
Most of the stages are the same as last year, and Paddon said they were mostly flowing, and slightly bumpy in places.
"I enjoy the stages. What makes it unique here, as it was last year, is the weather.
‘‘We are expecting very hot temperatures, up to 40 degrees air temp, which makes it one of the hottest rallies we do and looking after tyres in such conditions becomes key."
