Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak do not surrender to the difficulties of desert special stages and continue their fierce battle in the WRC2 Challenger category. After Thursday’s leg of Rally Saudi Arabia, the ORLEN Rally Team crew lead the standings.
Tight battle in the World Rally Championship finale continued on Thursday afternoon. The schedule included a repeat of three stages completed in the morning: Al Faisaliyah (19.36 kms), Moon Stage (20.12 kms) and Khulais (11.33 kms). The section was extended with the Jameel Motorsport Super Special city stage, already familiar to the competitors from yesterday.
As expected, the difficulty level of the already challenging stages increased even further. Even more damaged surface, rocks pulled out on the road and increasing fatigue took their toll on the crews and their machines.
Kajetanowicz and Szczepaniak maintained the pace they built before noon. On gravel tests they set fifth-, fourth-, and second-fastest stage times in the WRC2 Challenger field. In the heart of Jeddah they added third-fastest time, maintaining the lead in their category. The ORLEN Rally Team crew have a 1.5-seconds advantage over their nearest rivals. Their previously established lead has been reduced by a 10-second penalty. A car issue, discovered towards the end of the second loop, required extended service and resulted in a one-minute delay at one of the time control points.
Despite the car issue during the last loop, basically towards the end, I think it was a good day. We still lead the WRC2 Challenger standings, while the gap to our rivals has been reduced by the penalty we received for leaving the service too late. We have not been able to fix this issue. It is difficult because we do not know exactly what the problem is, so this night will not be peaceful. However, I want to stress it was a successful day, as our pace was very good, even excellent on some stages. We enjoyed our driving although that is a very gentle and inadequate statement, as it was very challenging. We started the day after 6 in the morning, now it is 10 in the evening, so we have spent sixteen hours in our rally overalls. We are not giving up tomorrow. I hope we can fix this problem, although the chances are slimmer, as the morning service only lasts 15 minutes. But I am doing my job and I will do my best to keep it up
– Kajetan Kajetanowicz, the 2023 WRC2 Challenger champion, commented after the day.
Friday, even though it is the beginning of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, will certainly bring no respite for the drivers. Three special stages, each run twice, are scheduled: Alghulah (11.69 kms), Um Al Jerem (30.58 kms) and Wadi Almatwi (24.90 kms). This amounts to a total of 135 competitive kilometres and the rally excitement kicks off at 6:26 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 Saudi Arabia 2025 – unofficial WRC2 Challenger classification after SS8:
- Kajetanowicz/Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) 1:23:08.8
- Korhonen/Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +1.5
- Griazin/Aleksandrow (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +20.0
- Virves/Viilo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +1:16.2
- Al-Kuwari/Bernacchini (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +3:44.8
- Domínguez/Peñate (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +4:43.0
- Chwist/Heller (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +6:04.7
- Bakhashab/Moore (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6:26.8
- Granados/Martí (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7:11.4
- Al-Attiyah/Chehab (Ford Fiesta Rally2) +12:52.7
