Hayden Paddon's last World Rally Championship start on gravel was Rally Australia in 2018, where he finished second. When he lines up in Encarnacion on August 27, 2839 days will have passed.
Hyundai confirmed the New Zealander and co-driver John Kennard for Rally del Paraguay in its post-Rally Finland press release, ending weeks of uncertainty over who would take the third i20 N Rally1 in South America.
"Hayden Paddon and John Kennard will return to the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 cockpit at Rally del Paraguay for their fourth WRC event with the team this year following appearances in Monte-Carlo, Croatia and Japan," the team statement read.
That list is the point. Paddon's deal to rejoin Hyundai for the first time since 2018 covered three asphalt rallies and nothing else, on a calendar deliberately front-loaded with Tarmac. He has spent the year making it plain that the wrong surface was doing him no favours.
"It was never in the initial plan this year; the original contract was for the three tarmac rallies," Paddon told Speedcafe. "Obviously we've been pushing to have that opportunity on gravel. It's where we feel comfortable and where I think things are going to happen and click a little bit easier."
He had been blunter earlier in the season about the difference between the two.
"I've done a test day on gravel doing a bit of development work, and straight away I just felt at home on gravel," Paddon told DirtFish. "So I think it's a completely different kettle of fish to Tarmac. On Tarmac it still doesn't quite feel 100% comfortable. So yeah, gravel would be up my alley."
The complication was never Paddon's case. It was that Hyundai has three drivers rotating one seat — Paddon on the Tarmac rounds, Dani Sordo on Canarias, Portugal and Greece, Esapekka Lappi on Sweden, Kenya, Estonia and Finland — and only two South American events left to share out.
Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley made the team's position clear before the call was made.
"We're not confirming any third drivers until we put all the pieces into place. But Hayden's done a great job," Wheatley told DirtFish. "The difficulty is that we've also got two other very, very good drivers for those second half of the championship. So it's a difficult balance, but there's no question he's done enough."
Wheatley also explained why the decision waited until Finland was over: "The intention is to decide immediately after Finland, because that gives us a full width of information about the performances that we've had. And I think it would probably be a bit unfair to make too many decisions without having all the information on the table. But the difficult thing is we have three drivers that all want to do it — and that's good."
Paddon is the only one of the three to have stood on a podium this year, third in Croatia, and sits ninth in the championship on level points with M-Sport's Josh McErlean. His other results were seventh in Japan and 11th in Monte Carlo, numbers he has refused to dress up.
"That's not a question for me. I'm a result-driven person, I'm a competitive person, so I don't get excited about seventh or anything," he said when asked whether he had earned another drive.
South America carries some weight for him. His only WRC victory came in Argentina a decade ago, and he is treating Paraguay as a continuation of that rather than a fresh start.
"It's a privilege to have this opportunity and to return to South America where there's some pretty fond memories of 10 years ago," Paddon said. "Obviously it's a different country, different stages, but similar kind of vibe. We're going into the rally in the supporting role, as before, but with nothing to lose and under no illusion how tough a rally it will be because there's no substitute for seat time at this level. Ten years ago we were driving these cars most weeks, now it's four times a year with some short test days."
The event itself gives him little margin. Based near the Argentine border, Rally Paraguay runs 22 special stages over 358.99km of red-earth roads that switch between fast and smooth and technical sections cut through dense vegetation, with deep ruts and sudden surface changes. None of Hyundai's three rotating drivers has contested it — it only joined the calendar last year. Paddon will get a pre-event test.
Hyundai has not yet said who takes the car for Rally Chile, which follows.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/paddon-ends-2839-day-gravel-wait-with-paraguay-call-up). Visit for full coverage.*