Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard wrapped up WRC Rally Japan with a clean seventh place finish.  

It’s been a rally of two halves, says Paddon of the seventh round of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship which took place 28 to 31 May in and around Toyota City, to the west of Tokyo.  

While judging tyre choice for Friday’s six stages proved trickier than expected, the Kiwis were determined to keep learning and improving on their third event with Hyundai Motorsport in the Hyundai i20 Rally1 car.  

“It didn’t start too well on Friday, but we were able to make some setup changes overnight and get some good improvements for Saturday and Sunday,” says Paddon, who like all competitors spent Saturday trying to manage tyre wear in hot temperatures.  

“This meant we were a lot closer to our teammates in terms of stage times and overall results.  

“In the end, to finish seventh is still a good job done. I’m not sure the rally would have ended any differently even if it had started more positively. At the end of the day, we got the car to the finish on another rally we hadn’t done before when we’re still learning more about the car all the time. No scratches, no damage, a clean finish. We can tick a lot of boxes in competing here, where we enjoyed running a Rally1 car on tarmac for the last time.”  

With Hyundai Motorsport still to announce which of their third car drivers will compete in the remaining 2026 WRC events, Paddon acknowledges that the events that he and Kennard contested have been probably three of the most challenging tarmac rallies for them.  

“There’s no secret in that, but with each rally – Monte Carlo, Croatia and here in Japan – we’ve been trying to take the challenges in our stride and do the best we can. We’ve kept improving, our speed’s improved with each rally and we’ve secured a couple of good results. I think we’ve done everything that’s been asked of us. So now we look forward to the next steps.”  

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Kiwi rally stars Hayden Paddon and John Kennard head for this week’s FIA World Rally Championship in Japan with a different goal to their two earlier events with Hyundai Motorsport this year.  

The aim is to up the pace, says Paddon of the seventh WRC round, taking place 28-31 May in and around Toyota City, to the west of Tokyo.  

“It’s another new rally for us, but this time the approach shifts,” says Paddon. “It’s time to release the shackles and turn up the speed. There’s less pressure on us to simply finish as there was at Monte Carlo and Croatia – although this doesn’t stop that being a key goal – but John and I want to try and get closer to our teammates in terms of speed and stage times. We’re feeling much more comfortable in the car and want to use that to try and be competitive within the top five or six.”  

Earlier editions of WRC Japan have utilised flowing asphalt stages. Now, the stages are typically narrow and twisty, often lined by barriers, drop-offs or dense trees.  

Paddon acknowledges they lack personal knowledge of the stages whereas other competitors have contested many of the same stages over the two previous editions of this rally.  

“However, I’ve also benefited from another one-day test in Europe, helping me get to know the car more. Based off my feelings and the data from Croatia, we tried some new setups which took us in the right direction. However, there’s no opportunity to test in specific Japan conditions, so the Shakedown runs immediately before the rally starts will be very important for fine-tuning the car.” 

Paddon and Kennard have competed in Japan just once before, back in 2010, when Rally Japan was on gravel and a round of the FIA Production World Rally Championship. The Kiwis finished second in this category.  

“We’ve obviously been doing our homework on the stages. They look quite slow, tight and technical, so different to the European tarmac rounds. Compared to Croatia with the huge amount of dirt and stones being dragged onto the tarmac, we’re expecting the stages in Japan to stay relatively clean, allowing for the fact it’s coming into the rainy season. We can expect some wet conditions at some point during the rally, which will make roads extremely slippery.”