Krzysztof Holowczyc and Lukasz Kurzeja lead 68th Rally Poland after Saturday’s first loop of stages. The battle is very fierce and all of three stages was won by a different driver. First stage was won by Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Subaru Impreza), second by Holowczyc and the third one by Zbigniew Staniszewski (Mitsubishi Lancer).

Holowczyc’s advantage over second overall Michal Bebenek (Mitsubishi Lancer) is 5,5 seconds. Third overall, Kajetanowicz loses to the leader 12,7 seconds.

Luca Rossetti, a current European champion drives under expectations. The Italian driver is 16th overall with over a two-and-a-half minute gap to Holowczyc. Rossetti’s mishap is caused mainly because of the puncture at Kruklanki 1 stage. 

After a short halt in a service park, all competitors will tackle three more stages – Jagodne, Kruklanki and a spectacular Mikolajki stage.

Comments:

Krzysztof Holowczyc - We could even improve on the stage we won. The most important thing is that we have a good understanding with the car and a co-driver. We know we can accelerate a little bit more. I made some mistakes at the hairpins. It is interesting that the cars from Scandinavia are not strong enough. Their real advantage is suspension.

Luca Rossetti – At the right narrow bend we hit the stone, which was in the middle of the road. I couldn’t avoid it. I had a puncture about 14 kms before the finish. We lost a minute and a half. That’s it. In the second stage the speed was fine, but I had an error in my pace notes. I spun and stalled the engine. We will try to improve something in the tires.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz – It is fantastic. As I expected we’re cleaning the road. Unfortunately, Antonin Tlustak is ahead of us. He uses a strange line. If it is possible, I’ll drive a little bit faster.

Michal Kosciuszko – I think we made a mistake with tires. At the first stage, which was a little bit dump, there were a lot of long straights. We could not build up speed, we had no traction in braking points. Two more stages were better, more technical and solid. We will use different tires at the second loop.

Grzegorz Grzyb – It’s our first time with this car on gravel. I know how much mistakes I made. The pace is not good, we have a contact with the guys. We’ll change settings a little bit. We had thousands of adventures. It is a gravel event, the car jumps, but I try to have a clean line. At the third kilometer of the last stage there was a heavy downpour.

Maciek Oleksowicz – We have a steady pace. I make no mistakes. I’m very happy with car settings and the stages. They are clean. We’ll try to improve our position. We’re at the first place in ERC classification, which is my priority.

Michal Bebenek – It’s fine at the moment. It’s hard to catch Holowczyc. I’ll have to make some changes in the car. I do not know what is wrong, but I’m not happy with the rear suspension.