The competitors have completed three special stages of Rally Italia Sardegna. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak steered away from trouble in tough conditions, steadily gathering pace and finishing the loop in sixth position in their category.
First leg of round six of the 2025 World Rally Championship got underway on Friday morning. The crews tackled three special stages: Arzachena (13.97 kms), Telti-Calangianus-Berchidda (18.43 kms) and the longest test in this year’s schedule: Sa Conchedda (27.95 kms). As predicted, tight battle on twisty and narrow stages is further complicated by extreme heat, which turns rally cars into mobile saunas.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak avoided mistakes – unlike many other crews which either retired or suffered massive time losses on SS2 – and improved their results. They wrapped up the section with fifth-fastest result on Sa Conchedda stage, holding sixth place among 31 WRC2 Challenger crews. The gaps among frontrunners are very small – just 12 seconds separate the ORLEN Rally Team crew from a podium position.
– The opening loop of Rally Italia Sardegna is already behind us. We knew it would not be easy – and it wasn’t easy. However, I think we completed it basically without problems. In one place I went a bit too wide and touched one of thousands of rocks. I thought we caught a puncture and we lost some time. It would be a lot better without this imaginary puncture. On the other hand it’s good because nothing happened, our suspension was not damaged. Three special stages, each of them a bit different and one of them completely new. Lots of things happened there, many crews had to retire. We are doing our job. I enjoy driving and the rhythm is much better than in Portugal. However, Sardegna is a completely different event, so I am still testing car setup. It’s getting better but at the same time you could end up in a blind alley. The car is intact and clean, our boys did not have a lot of work – which is quite unusual during such a difficult rally. We will do our best also on the next loop but – as always in rallying – everything is possible
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz summed up the first loop.
The same set of three special stages – 60 kilometres of competition on gravel roads of Sardegna – await the competitors in the afternoon.
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.
Rally Italia Sardegna, unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification after SS3:
- Prokop/Ernst (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) 37:10.9
- Joona/Vaaleri (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +5.5
- Cachón/Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6.1
- Virves/Viilo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9.3
- Jürgenson/Oja (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +14.2
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +18.0
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +20.8
- M. Bulacia/Vallejo (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +21.3
- Daprà/Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +25.2
- L. Rossel/Mercoiret (Citroën C3 Rally2) +30.3
