The FIA European Rally Championship leaders Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jarek Baran keep up consistent and very good pace in Rally di Roma Capitale. After four special stages the LOTOS Rally Team crew fights in top three of overall standings, with narrow gap of just five seconds! Closely fought battle for the lead continues in the rally which marks penultimate, extremely important round of the championship.
– We are setting top three times, our pace is good. We still have one more loop to run today, a bit shorter, but the weather is even more unpredictable. Now the tyre choice gets very important. Big round of applause for the LOTOS Rally Team mechanics, the car works very well. Everything goes according to our plan or even better, but we need to stay absolutely focused. It is a difficult rally and one of the reasons is that it is stretched over time – said Kajetanowicz after special stage four.
Changeable weather conditions along the rally route brought plenty of excitement over the course of the opening loop. The competitors had to make very important tyre choices during the service in the morning. Kajto started his day with second fastest time on the opening stage, losing just 1.1 seconds to the pace setter. The next test was interrupted when one of the crews encountered some problems (their car blocked the road) and afterwards all competitors who were not able to run through the stage were given notional times. Stage three of the Saturday’s leg brought another second fastest result for double European champion.
After four stages Kajetanowicz holds third place in unofficial rally standings. The Polish driver trails second placed Bryan Bouffier (France, Ford Fiesta R5) by just 0.9 seconds and the leader Alexey Lukyanuk (Russia, Ford Fiesta R5) is only 5.3 seconds ahead. Bruno Magalhães, the main rival of Kajetanowicz, currently holding second place in championship standings, is sixth (+21.6 seconds, Portugal, Skoda Fabia R5). There are still two special stages to go today: SS5 Colle San Magno (13.65 kms) and SS6 Greci-Pico (26.44 kms).
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jarek Baran are supported by strategic partner of LOTOS Rally Team – LOTOS Group – as well as CUBE.ITG, Delphi and Driving Experience. More info about Kajetan Kajetanowicz and the team available at: www.lotosrallyteam.pl, www.kajto.pl, www.fb.com/EmocjeDoPelna, www.fb.com/KajetanKajetanowicz, www.twitter.com/Kajto_pl and www.youtube.com/Kajtopl
Unofficial classification after SS4 of Rally di Roma Capitale:
1. Alexey Lukyanuk / Alexey Arnautov (Russia, Ford Fiesta R5) 32:59.2
2. Bryan Bouffier / Xavier Panseri (France, Ford Fiesta R5) +4.4 s
3. Kajetan Kajetanowicz / Jarosław Baran (Poland, Ford Fiesta R5) +5.3 s
4. Grzegorz Grzyb / Jakub Wróbel (Poland, Skoda Fabia R5) +15.5 s
5. Simone Tempestini / Sergiu Itu (Romania, Citroen DS3 R5) +19.2 s
6. Bruno Magalhães / Hugo Magalhães (Portugal, Skoda Fabia R5) +21.6 s
7. Jan Černý / Petr Černohorský (Czech Republic, Skoda Fabia R5) +26.4 s
8. Łukasz Habaj / Daniel Dymurski (Poland, Ford Fiesta R5) +31.4 s
9. Stéphane Consani / Salmon Valentin (France, Ford Fiesta R5) +41.6 s
10. Romain Dumas / Denis Giraudet (France, Porsche 997 GT3) +47.5 s
