Intro:

New Zealander Hayden Paddon retains his lead in the Rally Italia Sardegna after Saturday morning's loop of five stages.

Script:

Hayden Paddon managed to hold off Sebastien Ogier and even eke out his Rally Italia Sardegna lead ever so slightly on Saturday morning's loop of five stages.

Paddon, who impressively finished the opening leg 8.8 seconds up on the Frenchman, again performed well this morning in his Hyundai i20 WRC, making the most of his better road position and setting a string of top-three times, including going second in special stage 13 and SS14.

It means he now heads back to service with his lead very much intact; 9.3 seconds separating him from Ogier.

Ott Tanak now finds himself third in his M-Sport Fiesta Rs WRC, 59.6s adrift of Ogier and 1m 21.7s up on Citroen's Mads Ostberg, who in turn is just 7.8s ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala.