Hayden Paddon nailed his best World Rally Championship yet after finishing second in the Rally Italia Sardegna.

Hayden Paddon has made New Zealand motorsport history, securing his first-ever World Rally Championship podium on the roads of Sardinia.

Paddon nursed his ailing Hyundai around four 11km stages on the final day of the Rally of Italy to secure second place on Sunday night (NZT), 3 minutes and 5 seconds behind world champion and race winner Sebastien Ogier.

It is the equal highest a Kiwi has ever finished in a WRC event, meaning Paddon joins the company of Rod Millen, Ray Wilson and Blair Robson who had second place finishes in the Rally of New Zealand in 1989, 1988 and 1979 respectively.

GETTY IMAGES Hayden Paddon and John Kennard of New Zealand compete in their Hyundai around Sardinia.

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It is the best WRC result outside New Zealand, eclipsing Possum Bourne who finished fourth at Rally Australia in 1990.

Paddon, whose pace was strong enough to win Stage 20, the first of the day, said he was feeling "very relieved" to finish after a small problem slowed his pace on the last three.

"A massive thanks to everybody supporting me - at home and at the team. I can't have wished for anything more from here."

Earlier in the rally, those watching Paddon's progress dared to dream of a victory. But on roads where rocks the size of footballs have regularly found their way onto the racing line, it seemed likely that there would be one with Paddon's name on it.

So it proved.

The Hyundai driver started the third day with an 8.8 seconds advantage over Ogier and was in the box seat when he extended his overnight lead to 9.3 seconds after 15 of the 23 stages.

But the Frenchman, who is the only driver yet to have a mechanical problem of some sort, took the lead in the afternoon's 17th Monti di Ala' stage when Paddon spun and lost more than 10 seconds when the engine stopped.

Paddon then struck the fateful piece of granite on the next stage, with the car suffering a damaged transmission and forcing him to carry out roadside repairs.

The normally ice-cool Kiwi allowed himself some emotion once he had crawled over the finish line for the day, after initially being too overcome to speak to media.

"I don't want to be a drama queen but when it happened, it ripped my heart out," Paddon said.

"We hit a big rock on the driving line and I thought there was no way we could go on but we strapped it up as best we could."

On the second day Paddon took his opponents to school as he left them in the dust, winning three of the first four stages to take a lead of 20 seconds on the rest of the field.

It was a margin he would hold for the rest of the day until a near calamity on stage 10 - the final one of the day - saw him lose nearly 12 seconds to the relentless Ogier.

Paddon's tyres, which had made the difference earlier on, failed him. He felt as though he was being pushed wide at every turn, even hitting a bank at one point, before one of them punctured with the line in sight.

This drive represents a turning point for the man from Geraldine, South Canterbury, and his right-hand man from Marlborough, John Kennard.

Up until Paddon arrived in Sardinia to celebrate one year of breaking into the top-tier, he had struggled to get out of the middle of the field.

He had won one stage, in Spain, and finished as high as fifth overall in his team-mate Dani Sordo's car at Rally Sweden, but car failure and crashes have prevented him from showing the full range of his talent.

Bourne, who won the first stage of Rally New Zealand in 1999, is the only other Kiwi to know what it is like to lead a round of the WRC, while Paddon is the first to do it outside his home country.