Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak started Friday’s leg of Rally Turkey as WRC-2 leaders, after winning yesterday’s opening stage. However, it was not a lucky morning for the Polish crew. They struggled with power steering failure over the course of the first loop, loosing time and falling to sixth position. The LOTOS Rally Team crew made it into the service park, where their mechanics did their best to fix the problem.
Unfortunately, the power steering failed on the opening stage. The Polish duo, despite setting the fastest split times at the beginning of the test, lost several dozen seconds. Although it was not possible to fix the problem after the finish line, the crew did not give up and carried on – despite the failure. The LOTOS Rally Team crew hold sixth position in the WRC-2 standings.
– During the first loop our car worked faultlessly only on a part of the opening stage. The route is very demanding. My hands hurt a lot, it is really tough without the power steering. I would like to dispel the myth that the power steering turns off only because of driver’s error. Yesterday it switched off at the service ahead of the opening stage, right after turning on the power. Today the same happened on seventh kilometre and we had to continue like this. We had massive vibrations. The second loop will be extremely difficult for our car, which does not cope with difficulties of this rally. However, we will try to do our job. My mechanics are very committed and they will try to fix it. We know that the afternoon stages will be more like survival. On the first loop we did not manage to correct our pace notes because I was focused on keeping the car on the road. We remain optimistic although it is really hard to find motivation after so many problems
– commented Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the European Rally Champion.
In the afternoon the crews repeat the same three stages: Çetibeli (38.10 kms; at 12:37 CET), Ula (21.90 kms; at 14:00 CET) and Çiçekli (12,55 kms; at 15:03 CET).
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by strategic partner of LOTOS Rally Team – LOTOS Group – as well as Delphi Technologies and Driving Experience. More info about Kajetan Kajetanowicz and the team available at: www.lotosrallyteam.pl and www.kajto.pl, as well as at: www.fb.com/EmocjeDoPelna, www.fb.com/KajetanKajetanowicz, www.twitter.com/Kajto_pl and www.youtube.com/Kajtopl.
Rally Turkey 2018, WRC-2 standings after SS4:
1. Kopecký / Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) 1:00:12.9
2. Tidemand / Andersson (Skoda Fabia R5) +5.0 s
3. Tempestini / Itu (Citroen C3 R5) +43.1 s
4. Ingram / Whittock (Skoda Fabia R5) +2:02.9 s
5. Avci / Alkir (Ford Fiesta R5) +2:54.1 s
6. Kajetanowicz / Szczepaniak (Ford Fiesta R5) +2:59.6 s
7. Heller / Olmos (Ford Fiesta R5) +3:35.8 s
8. Cukurova / Bostanci (Skoda Fabia R5) +5:01.9 s
9. Fahri / Gücenmez (Ford Fiesta R5) +5:14.1 s
10. Manyera / Çerkez (Ford Fiesta R5) +10:10.2
