In their debut in Ford Fiesta R5 Polish champions Kajetan Kajetanowicz took a brilliant victory in LOTOS 70 Rally Poland. It is Kajetanowicz’s third win in Polish classic, while Jarosław Baran won the event for the fourth time. Second position was taken by leaders after Saturday’s leg Bryan Bouffier and Xavier Panseri (Peugeot 207 S2000) while third position was taken by the leaders of the FIA European Rally Championship classification Jan Kopecky and Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia S2000).
There was a fierce battle for further places. Michał Sołowow and Sebastian Rozwadowski who occupied third position after Saturday’s stages eventually lost the battle for the lowest podium with Kopecky and after the puncture on the final stages they were also taken over by Michał Kościuszko and Krzysztof Hołowczyc. It is the first Rally Poland since 2010 when Sołowow reached the finish line out of podium.
After a severe spine injury during Rally Deutschland it was not obvious if Kościuszko would take part in Rally Poland. Eventually he came to Mikołajki and his fight for top spots was dashed by power steering problems on Saturday.
Top ten spots were completed by Craig Brenn (7th place), Zbigniew Staniszewski (8th place), Maciej Oleksowicz (9th position) and Dominykas Butvilas (10th spot)
For sure Robert Kubica was the biggest victim of LOTOS 70 Rally Poland. During Saturday’s final special stage, he hit the stone and ripped off a front right wheel. Despite finishing the stage Kubica was unable to reach service park. A few hours it turned out that because the incident the engine of Citroen DS3 RRC was damaged and Kubica co-driven by Maciej Baran were forced to retire the event.
The same fate was shared by Rally Poland 2008 winners Michał and Grzegorz Bębenek. During the second run of Biskupiec stage Michał made mistake in one of the cuts and the front wheel in his Subaru Impreza was ripped off. The duo from -Bochnia was forced to retire.
Big emotions and fierce battle was underlined by the fact that as many as five drivers scored scratch times. Bryan Bouffier and Kajetan Kajetanowicz won four tests, Kubica and Kangur two while Jan Kopecky won one stage.
Photo © Marcin Kaliszka
Source: Rajd Polski.pl
