Hayden Paddon is still in disbelief at his shock podium at Rally Croatia and has revealed his next World Rally Championship event will be in Japan.

Paddon – and fellow Kiwi co-driver John Kennard – survived a chaotic tarmac rally in which Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville crashed out on the final stage, the Belgian having been in the lead, with Paddon fourth.

The unfortunate event elevated Paddon to the podium in just his second event this year, after placing 11th at Rallye Monte Carlo.

It’s his first World Rally Championship (WRC) podium since Rally Australia in 2018, which he achieved alongside British co-driver Seb Marshall.

Having only been recalled to the Rally1 competition in December, the success has come as a surprise.

“I would have thought you had better odds winning the lottery, to be honest,” Paddon said, when asked what he would have thought of the feat this time last year. “It’s just not something that I even conceived was possible. It’s no secret I still want to get back there with our own team and run a team long-term, but as a driver, I certainly never thought this was possible.

Hayden Paddon was elevated to third after Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville crashed out on the final stage. Photo / Hyundai

“We obviously didn’t achieve it in the normal way of going out there and setting the world on fire from a speed perspective. We did it through consistency and trying to avoid problems in a rally that threw up a lot of challenges for people. And we know we still have more speed to find, but we are making good progress.”

Neuville’s crash was devastating for the Hyundai team, who have yet to win a rally and had earlier lost French driver Adrien Fourmaux to a crash on stage 12.

Paddon said Neuville’s exit made the podium bittersweet.

“I would have taken a lot more pride out of Thierry getting it across the line and if we finished fourth, I think it would have been a great result and something that we still would have been happy with.

“In the heat of the battle, yeah, we’re trying to win a championship for our team this year, so it doesn’t obviously help going forward, unless us being there and picking up the pieces means it wasn’t a complete disaster, so we’re able to salvage something for the team.”

Paddon now sits 11th in the overall standings, having picked up 15 points at Rally Croatia.

The result is a major milestone for the 38-year-old, who was cut from Hyundai’s WRC team in 2018.

Paddon said there’s a simple piece of advice he’d give his 2018 self.

“Be patient and expect the unexpected, I guess. There have been a couple of times through the eight years where you think the world’s set against you, and no matter what you did and how hard you worked, it didn’t seem like things were going to ever go your way. Whereas in a very short space of time, things have turned around very quickly. And if we’d given up and put up the white flag at any stage, then we certainly wouldn’t be back where we are now.”

Hayden Paddon will next contest Rally Japan in May. Photo / Hyundai

The Kiwi is sharing Hyundai’s third seat, alongside Esapekka Lappi and Dani Sordo.

Paddon has confirmed his next WRC event will be at Rally Japan from May 28-31 – another tarmac event.

“In a perfect world, we’d love to have a gravel rally, but we’re also sharing the car with two other drivers, and their strong points are also gravel. So I guess we’re making up for some of the events, perhaps where they’re not the strongest.

“It’s not our ideal events and that’s something we have to take into account this year. We’re also not really getting any testing, so we’re literally jumping straight in the car and straight into these rallies. So there are a few odds stacked against us, but we’ve got to use that to our benefit to just show up and do a good job.”

Paddon said it is too early to tell whether this result will help him secure another WRC gig next year.

“In the few months that we’ve been working with the team, we’re trying to build a good relationship there and not just around results, but just what we’re trying to do with helping the team off the track in terms of car development and feedback, and particularly as we do go into a new rule set of cars is how we can maybe be an asset to a team in helping to develop a car to be at the front of the field.

“I think everything’s tracking in a pretty good way, as a general vibe. But any sport’s pretty cut-throat; you’re only as good as your last result, so we’ve just got to stay focused and make sure that we can keep this momentum going.”

Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.