Extremely demanding conditions continue to spice up the competition in Acropolis Rally. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak maintain great pace, keeping the lead in the WRC2 Challenger category and second position in the WRC2 standings.
Saturday, the longest day in terms of competitive distance, consists of six special stages, with combined length of 123.44 kilometres. The crews tackle two runs of Pavliani (24.58 kms), Karoutes (19.48 kms) and Inohori (17.66 km) tests.
The participants of round seven of the 2025 World Rally Championship completed the morning loop. Although they moved to another region of Greece, the conditions remained unchanged. Special stages on rough roads in the Parnassus area do not leave any margin for error. Extreme heat does not make it easy to avoid mistakes. Despite high altitudes reached today by the crews, temperature exceeded 30 degrees already at 9 CET.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak get to know their car with every kilometre, completing a solid beginning of the day. The WRC2 Challenger leaders try to adjust their pace to current situation, finding right balance between pushing and taking care of their machine. They are doing a great job – the ORLEN Rally Team crew enjoy over 100 seconds’ advantage in their category. The Polish duo hold excellent second position in the WRC2 standings.
Halfway point of Acropolis rally is already behind us. Maybe more than fifty percent of competitive kilometres are completed but a lot of things can still happen. Complicated special stages await us, the second loop will be very punishing for tyres. We heard about rain on the middle stage of the loop, so optimum tyre choice is difficult. It seems that we don’t have proper tyres for one of the stages but I make the choice with the whole loop in mind. This decision rests on my shoulders. However, there are more difficult things. Road surface is full of rocks, it’s easy to puncture a tyre. I struggle to manage our pace and advantage in these conditions but I am doing my best
– the ORLEN Rally Team driver summed up the loop.
Service break in Lamia is planned at mid-day. Afterwards the crews will repeat the same set of three special stages. Saturday’s leg will end around 21 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.
Acropolis Rally Greece, unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification after SS10:
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +22,6
- Cachón/Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +1:46,2
- Prokop/Ernst (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:48,3
- Solans/Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +4:58,1
- M. Bulacia/Der Ohannesian (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6:05,7
- Virves/Viilo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +6:09,6
- Daprà/Guglielmetti (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7:03,2
- Sarrazin/Roche (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7:59,7
- Joona/Vaaleri (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8:19,3
- Rossel/Mercoiret (Citroën C3 Rally2) +8:34,7
