New Zealander Hayden Paddon grabbed back-to-back stage wins on day two of Rally Australia to stay in touch with the leaders in the WRC event.
The Hyundai Motorsport driver sits fifth overall, 19.4 seconds behind French pacesetter Sebastien Ogier (Volkswagen), heading into the five speed tests on the final day on Sunday.
Paddon had begun Saturday with a lift in confidence, after his team traced the handling issues he had with his car on Friday to a differential problem.
He had the fastest times on the morning's two special stages on the NSW north coast, the first over a marathon 51km, the second over 8km.
That put the 28-year-old from Geraldine just 9.3s behind the then leader, Northern Ireland's Kris Meeke (Citroen).
Over the same two legs later in the day, Paddon was sixth and fifth, while two-time world champion Ogier was quickest both times to nudge Meeke off top spot by 0.3s.
"It hasn't been a bad afternoon, but we burned out our tyres halfway through the long stage," Paddon said.
"Now we have a bald tyre and the car keeps trying to switch ends under braking."
Paddon said it wouldn't be a case of him and co-driver John Kennard trying to catch those in front with pace alone.
"We'll just try and keep our speed and keep the pressure on," he said.
"We're 20 seconds behind, but that is just a spin or a stall."
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