{"id":107057,"date":"2026-08-02T18:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/107057\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:11:09","slug":"paddon-secures-extra-hyundai-wrc-outing-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/107057\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddon secures extra Hyundai WRC outing in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/hayden-paddon\/829610\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hayden Paddon<\/a> will take over the third seat at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/team\/hyundai-motorsport\/39416\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hyundai Motorsport<\/a> for the next World Rally Championship event in Paraguay later this month.<\/p>\n<p>Hyundai had been waiting until after this weekend\u2019s Rally Finland to determine its Rally1 driver-up for the event in South America (27-30 August). This season the Korean marque signed Paddon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/dani-sordo\/829147\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Dani Sordo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autosport.com\/driver\/esapekka-lappi\/841457\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Esapekka Lappi<\/a> as its drivers to share the car through the season.<\/p>\n<p>Paddon had been assigned asphalt rounds in Monte Carlo, Croatia and Japan in what has been a return to the WRC top tier for the first time since 2018. Given his fondness for gravel rallies, the New Zealander, who scored a third-place finish in Croatia, had hoped for an opportunity to drive a Rally1 car on gravel.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hayden-paddon-john-kennard-hyu.jpg\" alt=\"Hayden Paddon, John Kennard, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Hayden Paddon, John Kennard, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Hyundai<\/p>\n<p>A matter of hours after the finish of Rally Finland, Hyundai confirmed that Paddon would take over the third car which was piloted by Lappi this weekend. The team is yet to confirm who will drive the car for the round in Chile that follows Paraguay. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeyond excited and incredibly grateful to be heading back to the WRC, this time on gravel, and back to a part of the world that holds so many special memories for us,\u201d said Paddon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re under no illusions about the size of the challenge ahead. Jumping back into Rally1 on gravel against the best in the world won\u2019t be easy, but we\u2019ll make the most of this opportunity and give it absolutely everything we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA huge thank you to Hyundai Motorsport for believing in us and giving us this chance. I never thought we\u2019d be back on gravel in the main game, so this is one we\u2019ll truly appreciate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow it\u2019s time to get to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>            We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our survey<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hayden Paddon will take over the third seat at Hyundai Motorsport for the next World Rally Championship event&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[25547,295,294,293,1359,55220,32470,55221,1360],"class_list":["post-107057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hyundai","tag-hayden-paddon","tag-hyundai","tag-hyundai-group","tag-hyundai-motor-group","tag-hyundai-motorsport","tag-paddon-secures-extra-hyundai-wrc-outing-in-2026","tag-paraguay","tag-rally-del-paraguay","tag-wrc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}