Three special stages of Rally Italia Sardegna – the final round of the 2026 World Rally Championship season – are already completed by the competitors. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak finished the first loop of the day in second place in the WRC2 Challenger standings.
The competitors left the rally base in Alghero at dawn and headed toward stages in the central part of the island. Three tests were held: Tula-Erula (18.77 kms), Su Filigosu-Lerno (17.83 kms), and Monti di Alà-Sa Conchedda-Lerno (23.23 kms). Each stage proved that the challenge posed by Rally Italia Sardegna, widely regarded as one of the most demanding rounds of the WRC calendar, is really enormous.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak performed particularly well on the final stage of the morning loop, also the longest one of today’s schedule. After trouble-free run, they clocked second-fastest time in WRC2 Challenger category and third-fastest in the overall WRC2 standings, ahead of the likes of the newly crowned European Rally Champion, Teemu Suninen. They also showed solid performance on the two earlier stages, although on the opening test, Tula-Erula, they drove in thick dust, particularly in the forest sections. Problems with limited visibility resulted in a time loss of nearly half a minute. They managed to claw back some valuable seconds on the aforementioned final stage of the loop and the ORLEN Rally Team duo hold second position in the WRC2 Challenger category and fifth in the overall WRC2 standings.
Friday morning of Rally Italia Sardegna is already behind us – three very demanding stages, each one with different challenges. The first stage was particularly tough, with thick dust making it difficult to keep good pace. We lost some time but things improved on the following stages, especially on the third one, where both our rhythm and speed were right. Not everything is perfect, I am lacking a bit of feeling under braking, but considering the long break from gravel rallying, it is not bad. The atmosphere is cool and many Polish fans have flown out to the island. Now we are heading out for the second loop, temperatures are rising and the road surface will be destroyed but this is the World Rally Championship, so these kinds of challenges appear every day
– commented Kajetan Kajetanowicz, four-time Polish Rally Champion.
In the afternoon, the crews will repeat the same set of stages they have already completed. The leg is scheduled to finish around 8:00 CET.
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 SS4:
- Daprà/Guglielmetti Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 46:00,5
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +30,1 s
- Korhonen/Viinikka Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +31,3
- Sarrazin/Roche Lancia Ypsilon HF +49 s
- Virves/Viilo Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +1:40,9
- Solans/Sanjuan Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +2:03,1
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +2:15,4
- Domżała/Kuśnierz Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +2:20,3
- Mauro/Salvat Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +3:02,4
- Granados/Martí Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 +3:12,6
