Two stage wins in the WRC2 Challenger category, second-fastest times on remaining ones – this is how Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak performed on first Friday’s loop of Safari Rally Kenya. The ORLEN Rally Team duo lead the WRC2 standings, with almost 30 seconds in hand over second-placed crew!
The competitors covered almost 80 kilometres of special stages on Friday morning, starting with new test Camp Moran – the longest one in the whole rally, with 31.4 kilometres against the clock. Despite damaged tyre, Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak won this stage in their category, defeating Domínguez/Peñate by 6.8 seconds. They finished the next couple of stages with second (SS4 Loldia 1), first (SS5 Kengen Geothermal 1) and second (SS6 Kedong 1) times. After six stages the Polish crew lead the standings, over 29 seconds ahead of Solans/Sanjuan.
– It is exactly as tough or even tougher than we predicted. There are many stones and we had a puncture on one of the stages – fortunately with just seven kilometres to go on this long, over 30-kms test. A lot of things happened… We start the second loop in a moment and, as usual, it will be even more difficult. We don’t know what to expect… Probably something unexpected
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver, said at midday service.
After 40 minutes service break the competitors head to the second loop, tackling the same set of stages: SS7 Camp Moran 2 (31.40 kms, starts at 11:30 CET), SS8 Loldia 2 (19.11 kms, at 13:08 CET), SS9 Kengen Geothermal 2 (13.18 kms, at 14:21 CET) and SS10 Kedong 2 (15.10 kms, at 15:14 CET).
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by the title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as technical partner Delphi and ORLEN OIL.
Safari Rally Kenya, unofficial WRC2 classification after SS6:
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 1:08:21.8
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +29.2
- Domínguez/Peñate (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +50.1
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:25.0
- Patel/Khan (Škoda Fabia R5) +5:58.9
- Chwist/Heller (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +6:11.8
- Wahome/Okundi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +6:51.8
- Tundo/Jessop (Ford Fiesta R5) +8:22.9
- Díaz-Aboitiz/Ibáñez Sotos (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +16:24.9
- Anwar/Din (Ford Fiesta R5) +41:57.1
