As always, two runs of the Guanajuato city stage attracted huge crowd of passionate Mexican fans, watching the action unfold in round four of the 2023 World Rally Championship. The ORLEN Rally Team crew of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak begin their campaign in Mexico – the Polish duo hold third position in the WRC2 standings after day one!
Before the competition started, the crews had completed the official shakedown. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak, as usual, approached this stage as a good test of car set-up, without paying too much attention to results. The real fight started on the Street Stage GTO 1 and 2 – this 1.1-kms test opened an exciting competition in Rally México. On the first pass the ORLEN Rally Team duo clocked a very good time, losing just one second to the stage winners. They backed it up with fourth-fastest result on the next run, holding third position in the WRC2 standings after Thursday – trailing the leaders, Finnish duo Lindholm/Hämäläinen, by just 2.6 seconds.
– I am very happy to start our World Rally Championship season in Mexico. We have completed two short city stages, in really hot atmosphere and fantastic support of the crowd. We go to bed in good spirits at 23:00 – when a new day awakens back home, in Poland. Honestly, this atmosphere gives us wings – my right foot on gas pedal is heavier but we have the whole rally ahead. We compete in high temperatures, at high altitudes – for sure these conditions don’t make our life easy but we are prepared for that. The whole ORLEN Rally Team had worked hard ahead of the season and we are feeling positive
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, four-time runner-up in WRC2 and WRC3, said after two opening stages.
The Friday’s leg starts at 15:48 CET, with the famous El Chocolate stage – one of the longest test of the rally (29.07 kms). Afterwards the crews will tackle Ortega (15.71 kms) and Las Minas (13.79 kms) stages. The same set of stages will be repeated after the service break – with further two, short stages – Las Dunas Superspecial (3.70 kms) and Distrito León Mx (1.30 kms) – to wrap up the day.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by titular partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – PKN ORLEN, as well as technical partner Delphi Technologies, Pirelli, ATC CARGO S.A., PLATINUM ORLEN OIL brand, QUAZAR LOTOS OIL brand and SJS S.A.
