The second and also the longest leg of round eleven of the 2025 World Rally Championship has started. Today’s scheduled distance of nearly 140 competitive kilometres is divided into two loops. The crews have already completed three special stages and the Chilean morning greeted them with torrential rain. Breathtaking downhill drive towards the finish line of the Pelún stage (15.65 kms) took place on extremely wet surface. The sun appeared on the Lota (25.64 kms) and María Las Cruces (28.31 kms) stages, the roads dried quickly – accelerating tyre wear.
In changing conditions, Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak continue their fight for a podium finish in the WRC2 Challenger category. The rivals of the ORLEN Rally Team, the South American crew of Martínez and García, closed the gap on the opening stage of the day, but the Polish duo responded on following two stages, increasing the gap to 22.5 seconds.
Rally Chile do not disappoint us. During the first loop on Saturday we experienced basically every type of conditions. We were driving not only in dry conditions, although the sun came out towards the end of the section. It was very slippery. I think we chose the right tyres but as we wanted to save them, having to stick to the allocation dictated by the rules, we did not have all the new ones, so the final stage, with its very abrasive surface, was not easy. However, it was still better than I expected, as the grip was constantly changing during the stage. We maintain our third place, ahead of the fastest Chilean driver and we extended our advantage over him. The realistic plan for the next loop and for the entire rally is to keep this position. The virus circulating around us is not helping but I hope we will return to Poland without any infections
– said Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
The second half of the day will feature a repeat of the stages already completed in the morning. There are still 70 competitive kilometres to go and the weather remains a big unknown.
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 Chile 2025 – unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification after SS9:
- Gryazin/Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) 1:45:49.0
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +48.3
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +2:06.0
- J. Martínez/García (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:28.5
- F. Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +2:48.5
- G. Rosselot/Brizio (Citroën C3 Rally2) +5:00.7
- P. Heller/Amestica (Citroën C3 Rally2) +5:38.9
- E. Rosselot/Leiva (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7:09.7
- Scuncio/Román (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +7:31.1
- Galanti/Toyotoshi (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +10:05.3
