Saturday’s leg of the 82nd Rally Poland is completed. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak finished the day in fifth place, with much better performance on the afternoon loop.
Followed closely by huge crowd of spectators, competition in round four of both European and national championships continued on Saturday afternoon. The frontrunners completed all stages this time. The crews battled it out on stages Jastrzębie Zdrój (17.05 kms), Ochaby (11.20 kms), and Gmina Jasienica (19 kms), with the final test of the day taking place on the grounds of the Silesian Stadium, where a spectacular 1.5-kms superspecial stage was scheduled.
The changes made to the set-up of the car during the midday service break proved successful. The ORLEN Rally Team duo completed the demanding, at places very bumpy stages scattered across the southern part of the Silesian Voivodeship with better pace and more confidence. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak set sixth-, seventh-, and fourth-fastest times respectively. The championship-winning crew finished the leg with fifth-quickest result on the aforementioned final test of the day, held in the “Cauldron of Witches.” Kajetan and Maciek also hold fifth position in the overall standings of the rally. Finnish crew of Teemu Suninen and Antti Haapala lead the proceedings, less than 31 seconds in front of the Polish duo.
We have completed the Saturday’s leg. A lot happened today and although the night was short and I did not get much sleep, I feel like I could keep going – I am ready to head out for the third loop! However, we have some more kilometres to drive tomorrow. Sunday will also be a demanding, quite long day for the European Rally Championship, so we will try to do our part – which is to drive fast, at least as well as we did on today’s second loop. The changes we made during the midday service worked. Huge thanks to the engineers who gave me useful advice because I do not have much experience with tarmac-spec Toyota. If you want to fight, you have to spend a lot of time in the car, change things a lot in order to feel the difference. A small adjustment, which changed the car’s balance, was enough for me. I was able to open the throttle earlier and bring more speed into the corners, which immediately translated into proper feeling. Of course it is not perfect yet, at least I would like it to be even better, but it is quite good. For sure it is a fantastic feeling to drive with so many white and red flags along the stages. There are also plenty of people cheering us on on the road sections, waving at us – but I do not have time to wave back every time. When we stop ahead of the special stage, fans come up to take pictures and ask for autographs. There is not much time in the service park either but I am so grateful to all of you. This support really means a lot to me and I enjoy driving even more
– said Kajetan Kajetanowicz, triple European Rally Champion.
On Sunday the crews face another 90 competitive kilometres. The day gets underway with the famous Przegibek stage, which was last used during Rally Poland back in the previous millennium. The crews will only appear on the mountain pass, after which this stage is named. Afterwards the competitors will complete two runs of stages Kiczyce (12.10 kms), Hażlach (17.45 kms) and the Silesian Voivodeship (11.90 kms).
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as by technical partner Delphi and ORLEN OIL.
Rajd Polski 2026 – unofficial ERC results after SS8:
- Suninen/Haapala (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) 49:06.1
- Mabellini/Lenzi (Lancia Ypsilon Rally2) +8.4 s
- Matulka/Dymurski (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8.9 s
- Marczyk/Gospodarczyk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +10.7 s
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +30.9 s
- Bulacia/Murado (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +33.9 s
Szeja/Szeja (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +33.9 s - Tempestini/Maior (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +35.1 s
- Creighton/Regan (Citroën C3 Rally2) 38.5 s
- Rzeźnik/Kozdroń (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +39.8 s
