The second, rainy loop of Saturday’s stages at Safari Rally brought plenty of drama. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak tried to regain good rhythm, although it was extremely difficult in today’s conditions. However, the ORLEN Rally Team duo recovered lost ground step by step, getting closer to the WRC2 Challenger podium – they moved up to fifth position ahead of the final day.
It started to rain during the second Saturday’s loop of African classic event and the route turned into muddy swamp. The competitors made mistakes on roads which were looking like off-road tests rather than normal special stages. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak set third-fastest and two second-fastest stage times in the WRC2 Challenger standings, moving up to top five position in unofficial results ahead of the final leg.
– Safari Rally has shown its teeth. We left service zone as WRC2 Challenger and WRC2 leaders but the opening test turned out to be very unfortunate for us. Around seven kilometres into the stage, on straight section of the road, we must have lost a bolt from suspension and our rear wheel came loose. We stopped, fixed the car and continued – losing plenty of time. This is Safari. .. We will not give up. We dropped out from contention for victory but we remain positive. I think our Toyota has potential. The team we are working with this year is very committed and we want to exploit it together. For sure I am happy that I can do what I love doing, at the highest level possible. Even when not everything goes according to our plan
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the WRC2 Challenger champion, commented at the end of the day.
The opening stage of Sunday’s leg at Safari Rally Kenya gets underway at 6:42 local time (4:42 CET). The crews face five tests with total length of almost 66 kilometres and the competition ends after 12:00 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 Challenger classification after SS16:
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 3:50:53.4
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +19:53.0
- Chwist/Heller (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +24:19.5
- Tundo/Jessop (Ford Fiesta R5) +44:41.5
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +52:12.9
- Wahome/Okundi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:09:16.5
- Díaz-Aboitiz/Ibáñez Sotos (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:49:04.1
- Singh/Vohra (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +1:51:53.4
- Anwar/Din (Ford Fiesta R5) +2:17:53,3
- Virani/Shah (Škoda Fabia R5) +2:23:26,6
