Hayden Paddon takes a tumble in Monte Carlo as stage cancelled

The World Rally Championship got underway in spectacular fashion last night as Hyundai driver Hayden Paddon flipped his car on the 21.25km opening stage of Rallye Monte Carlo, forcing its cancellation.

The New Zealand driver, running third on the road, over-steered into a left hand bend, slid on ice and then hit a rock and rolled over before landing on its side. Initially, the stage was yellow flagged with the drivers behind Paddon all getting the warning message on the dashboard of their cars. Hayden and co-driver John Kennard were unhurt. The stage was cancelled.

Meanwhile, team-mate Thierry Neuville set the best time, seven tenths of a second ahead of M-Sport Fiesta WRC of World champion Sebastien Ogier. Dani Sordo (Hyundai) was slowed by the accident and like all the rest including Irish drivers Kris Meeke (Citroen WRC3) and Craig Breen (Citroen DS3 WRC) received a notional stage time. There was another stage late last night and today there are six stages in what is the longest of the four-day event.