The ORLEN Rally Team duo have completed a successful morning loop in Rally Italia Sardegna. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak gained six positions and hold fifth place in the WRC2 Challenger standings after eight special stages. The Polish crew set third-fastest times on two tests and just ten seconds separate them from a top-three position!
The opening loop consisted of two special stages: Tempo Pausania and Tula, each of them run twice. Today’s leg is further complicated due to lack of service between the stages, so the competition gets even tougher. However, Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak cope well with these conditions, gaining many places in the classification. The Polish duo set tenth-, fourth- and twice third-fastest times on the stages, moving up to fifth position in the WRC2 Challenger standings.
– The first loop of the longest day is already behind us. Our pace gets better and the most important thing is that we managed to save tyres, with plenty of stones on the road. My feeling is good today and our results confirm this – we finished two stages in third position and after the loop we are in fifth place in the WRC2 Challenger standings – closer and closer to the podium. I am not giving up, we continue to push – of course with cool head, as it is very easy to make a mistake here. A couple of crews experienced it today, fortunately we and our car – despite lack of service – are in a good shape. We drive on, with bigger smiles on our faces. I hope you are following our fight, supporting us along the way – comments Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
In the afternoon the crews will complete two passes of Monte Lerno (25.33 kms) and Coiluna-Loelle (14.53 kms) stages. Afterwards the cars will return to Alghero for 45-minutes service.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by the title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as technical partner Delphi, Pirelli, ORLEN OIL, ATC CARGO S.A. and SJS S.A.
Rally Italia Sardegna 2024 – WRC2 Challenger unofficial results after SS 8:
- Pajari/Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 1:54:36.4 s
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +49.2 s
- Prokop/Ernst (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:10.6 s
- Virves/Lesk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:13.6 s
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:21.2 s
- Joona/Hussi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:25.9 s
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3:45.2 s
- McErlean/Fulton (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3:59.1 s
- Daprà/Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +4:35.0 s
- Kremer/Kremer (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8:07.0 s
