Over 300 kilometres of special stages, almost 30 degrees centigrade and the fastest rally drivers in the world. Round five of the 2021 World Rally Championship – 18th edition of Rally Italia Sardegna – gets underway. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak, currently second in the WRC-3 standings, enter this event for the third time. Double winners from Croatia and Portugal feel great motivation in their quest for another success!
The competitors have completed both the recce and pre-rally shakedown, held on Thursday morning on almost 3-kms stage Loiri Porto San Paolo. Official start ceremony takes place this evening and after short night rest the crews will start the fight on Friday. The day begins at five in the morning and the opening stage starts a few minutes after eight. There are over 127 competitive kilometres to complete, starting with two runs of Filigosu – Sa Conchedda (22.29 kms) and Terranova (14.36 kms) stages. Two more stages, also run twice, await after the service break: Tempio Pausania (12.08 kms) and Erula – Tula (14.97 kms).
– We had no chance to calm down after Rally de Portugal and now the shakedown ahead of Rally Italia Sardegna is already completed. There was little time for preparations but I think we are ready for this demanding round. This weekend is expected to be the hottest one this season and of course it means additional challenge not only for machinery but also for crew. However, we are prepared, as we train all year long. The final part of this weekend could be wet and for sure it will not make tyre management easy but competition at this level is always demanding. This rally will be completely different than last year, not only because of the weather. The roads which we already know have been repaired and this is not exactly good for us. There are stones and sharp rocks under gravel – invisible during recce, so we were not able to include them in our pace notes. However, the cars which run ahead of us will for sure uncover them. Anyway, we remain positive ahead of this rally and we are happy to be here. The competition will be very exciting also for the fans and we already saw plenty of them at the shakedown
– says Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the LOTOS Rally Team driver.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by strategic partner of the LOTOS Rally Team – Grupa LOTOS – as well as Delphi Technologies, Pirelli, SJS Driving Experience and Grupa Sikora.
