It was the third and eighth podium victory in the history of joint starts at the Kajetanowicz / Szczepaniak World Rally Championship. The LOTOS Rally crew also ranked eleventh in the overall standings, only ahead of the factory crews.

Intensive preparations for this season lasted several months. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak pick the Croatia Rally as their first start of the year. This is a completely new event in the calendar, as its methods were previously known by a few crews. So not only was the speed important, but the ability to adapt and learn at speeds from kilometer to kilometer. Our crew managed it flawlessly: they won four special stages, and finished seventeen on the podium. Their pace allowed them to outrun the Factory Crews (WRC 2) in one-on-one trials, and eventually succumbed only to Citroen and Ford factory crews.

Watch also: Croatia Rally: Kagitan Kagitanovi won the 3rd World Rally Championship

Croatia is the third round of the World Rally Championship that Kagitanovi has won so far, after two victories in Turkey. He also ranks eighth on the podium, with strong results in Corsica, Sardinia, Germany and Spain.

– It was a great weekend and a dream start of the season! In fact, everything was going our way. We delivered a very good cadence, the car was great and we were able to avoid costly mistakes. As always, we’ve been working hard to prepare for this walk. For the past few weeks, I’ve been walking like a robot and I’ve only done what allowed us to do such a race! Now we are harvesting this fruit. I have an excellent team, Team LOTOS Rally, that has proven its class once again. We won a high-demand march, and went into an equal battle with the factory crews who had the privileges of the spy crews here. In some departments, this required us to take more risks that could cost too much. But our goal was to win the Croatian Rally and we’ve been aiming for that from day one. We start the season off well, with the support of our fans – whether here in Poland or in Poland. We are already looking forward to our upcoming gatherings with a smile full of motivation! – Summarizes Kagitan Kagitanovic, Representative of LOTOS Rally.

The Croatia Rally was the third round of the World Rally Championship, the first in the Kagitanovi calendar. In the seasonal ranking, the top 5 results from 7 starts are taken into consideration. The current leader in the ranking is Johan Roussel, winner of the Monte Carlo Rally and third in Croatia (48 points), followed by Nicholas Siamen (36 points). Kajetan Kajetanowicz, just like Teemu Asunmaa, has 28 points. The top ten also includes Core (23 points), Bunato (22 points), Lindholm (20 points), Hekela (15 points), Neubauer (14 points) and Betarinen (13 points).

Kajetan Kajetanowicz’s beginnings are supported by LOTOS Rally Team Strategic Partner – Grupa LOTOS, as well as Delphi Technologies, Pirelli, SJS Driving Experience, and Grupa Sikora.

Croatia Rally 2021, unofficial WRC 3 results:

1. Kajetanowicz / Szczepaniak (Poland, koda Fabia Rally2 evo) 3: 03: 23.8 seconds
2. Lindholm / Korhonen (Finland, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) +1: 14.6 s
3. Rossel / Coria (France, Citroën C3 Rally2) +2: 41.4 seconds
4. Ciamin / Roche (France, Citroën C3 Rally2) +3: 04.6 seconds
5. Ingram / WITTOCK (Great Britain, Skoda Fabia Rally 2 Evo) +4: 24.4 seconds
6. Zaldivar / Del Barrio (Paraguay / Spain, koda Fabia Rally 2 Evo) +11: 04.9
7. Keferböck / Minor (Austria, koda Fabia Rally2 evo) +12: 52.1 seconds
8. Melee / Beltram (Italy, Skoda Fabia Rally 2 Evo) +14: 34.9 seconds
9. Wraith / Winter (Austria, Ford Fiesta Rally 2) +17: 07,3 s
10. Bidorette / ALBREAK (Belgium, Skoda Fabia 2 Rally) +35: 43.2 seconds

KN, press release