Opening stages of Rally Estonia confirmed that LOTOS Rally Team crew is able to perform extremely well even on unknown roads. Yesterday the Polish duo put on a great show in front of many fans on the asphalt superspecial in the centre of Tartu. Kajto and Jarek set the second fastest time on the streets of second biggest city in Estonia.

Today the action moved to extremely fast gravel roads around Otepää. Kajetanowicz and Baran surprised not only themselves and the fans but also Estonian drivers who know these roads very well. Right from the start LOTOS Rally Team crew, competing here for the first time, fought an even fight with local opponents, leaving all FIA ERC frontrunners behind. The Polish duo recorded top-three times on three of opening five special stages, winning the final test of the first loop: Urvaste 2 stage.

After covering almost 50 kilometres of special stages, LOTOS Rally Team crew is ahead of all crews from Estonia and of FIA ERC leaders, Craig Breen and Scott Martin. Estonian Rally Champions Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov lead the rally but Kajetanowicz and Baran trail them by just 1.3s.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz: – This loop was very good for us. The result is a bit surprising, of course in a positive way :-) We took many, many corners – especially on Urvaste stage – absolutely flat out, pedal to the metal. These stages bring us a lot of fun but at the same time there are many uncertainties. Sometimes I enter a corner carrying massive speed, wondering if it is possible to exit it cleanly and in one piece. But this is Rally Estonia. You have to push right from the beginning until the end. Time gaps between the frontrunners are minimal: just tenths of a second and we have already covered almost 50 kilometres of competitive driving. The competition is so tight that there is no other choice: we have to drive aggressively and fast :-) Believe me, during recce it is very hard to imagine how quick you would be able to drive, extracting maximum speed from our rally car. We are very happy and we want to maintain this kind of pace over the next stages. Maybe we would be able to improve the car settings a bit. We got to know some Estonian stages and now we are heading for our first passes of the next ones: I will do my best to keep my right foot firmly on the pedal and push it to the metal :-)