Very long day of Rally Portugal, opening leg of round five of the 2025 World Rally Championship, is underway. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak tried to stay away from problems on the first loop, setting top-ten times in their category.
Almost 40 crews compete in the WRC2 Challenger category during the Portuguese WRC counter. Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak joined the record-breaking field, representing the ORLEN Rally Team. The Polish duo set second-fastest time on yesterday’s superspecial and today remain in top ten, with small gaps to crews ahead. Very long and demanding day is underway, with around fifteen hours on the road.
– Four stages completed today, many more still ahead. My driving is getting better step by step, although I have to admit that I am fighting a bit with my car, which is simply too soft. It is difficult to maintain precision in fast sections. We have more grip and confidence in slower parts. We will try to erase these issues but will not get rid of them completely, as we are not able to change too many parts during short service break – the rules are clear. We will work on it in the evening. I have an idea how to change the setup, I discussed it with my engineer. Rally Portugal is famous for great atmosphere, there are plenty of fans. I enjoy driving, we are happy
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the 2023 WRC2 Challenger champion, commented after the loop.
Friday’s leg consists of no less than ten special stages, with two passes of Mortágua (14.59 kms), Lousa (12.28 kms), Góis (14.30 kms) and Arganil (14.41 kms) tests, finishing the day with single runs of Águeda/Sever (15.08 kms) and Sever/Albergaria (20.24 kms) stages. There are 146.48 competitive kilometres to complete and longer service break is planned at the end of the leg. There will be just two 20-minutes windows for limited repairs during the leg. The first stage gets underway at 8:35 CET.
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 Portugal, unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification after SS5:
- Korhonen/Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 40:39.8
- Virves/Viilo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3.8
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6.9
- Cachón/Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +14.9
- Zaldivar/Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +18.9
- Joona/Vaaleri (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +24.9
- Daprà/Beltrame (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +29.7
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +30.2
- M. Bulacia/Vallejo (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +42.5
- Sarrazin/Roche (Citroën C3 Rally2) +48.0
