Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak have made a fantastic start of the competition in Rally Italia Sardegna. Following Thursday’s action in the final round of the 2026 World Rally Championship season, the ORLEN Rally Team crew lead the WRC2 Challenger standings and hold a top-three position in the overall WRC2 classification.
The packed Thursday schedule at Rally Italia Sardegna continued with the Ittiri Arena Show superspecial. This stage, just under 2.5 kilometres in length, took the crews around a rallycross track, with tight corners, big jumps, a water splash and asphalt sections. The crews competed in a head-to-head format, allowing fans to watch two cars racing each other at the same time.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak performed exceptionally well on the opening stage of the season finale. Despite a highly disadvantageous starting position – being one of the first cars on the road, which meant “sweeping” loose gravel off the surface – and a deliberate choice of non-optimal tyres, the ORLEN Rally Team crew won the stage in the WRC2 Challenger category and secured a top-three spot in the overall WRC2 standings.
We have just finished the opening stage. It was a spectacular test with plenty of jumps and a water splash, although there was a lot of road cleaning involved, as the organisers put us in the second pair and we had to clean the surface. However, I think we drove really well and efficiently, even though we chose hard tyres in order to save some thread for tomorrow, given that we have both soft and hard compounds at our disposal. And although the soft compound seemed like the better choice for this short stage, we set a good time on hard tyres. We are in the top three of the WRC2 standings and leading the Challenger category. Honestly, I did not expect things to go this well but this was just a short special stage. For sure it makes us happy but the proper rally starts tomorrow. It is going to be very tough for… well, for everything: for us, the tyres and the car. Hopefully not for the fans, though
– said Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the ORLEN Rally Team driver.
Six demanding special stages are scheduled for Friday. Crews will complete two runs of Tula-Erula (18.77 kms), Su Filigosu-Lerno (17.83 kms) and Monti di Alà-Sa Conchedda-Lerno (23.23 kms). Altogether this means almost 120 kilometres of competition in the heat and on roads that will become increasingly damaged.
Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz are supported by title partner of the ORLEN Rally Team – ORLEN S.A., as well as technical partner Delphi and ORLEN OIL.
Rally Italia Sardegna 2026 – unofficial WRC2 Challenger standings after SS1:
1. Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 2:07,0
2. Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +0.6
3. Martell/Gelsomino Lancia Ypsilon HF +0.8
4. Rossel/Mercoiret Lancia Ypsilon HF +1.1
Trentin/Ometto Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +1.1
Virves/Viilo Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +1.1
7. Daprà/Guglielmetti Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +1.2
8. Korhola/Temonen Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +1.8
9. Korhonen/Viinikka Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +1.9
10. Solans/Sanjuan Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +2.1
