After excellent beginning yesterday, today LOTOS Rally Team crew picked up the pace on gravel roads winding through incredible landscape in São Miguel Island. Effort and focus of Kajetanowicz and Baran brought excellent results: nobody could beat them on the first Friday loop of Rallye Açores.

On the opening Lagoa Meo test (6.91 kms) Kajetanowicz and Baran went second quickest, losing just 0.1 second to the leaders. Their toughest rivals had to take notice of their performance and realise that the fight for victory would be extremely tight. The Polish crew maintained outstanding pace and recorded second fastest time on the next stage, around the golf course, with spectacular jump at the end. LOTOS Rally Team crew won SS6, with mixed fast and slow sections, and reduced the gap to Craig Breen and Scott Martin by 2.6 secs. Excellent performance of the Polish duo on 29-kms Sete Cidades test turned out to be crucial: Kajetanowicz and Baran won the stage around the rim of a volcano with a comfortable margin of over 9 seconds, taking the lead in overall standings. Before the second loop LOTOS Rally Team crew has advantage of 6.7 seconds.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz: – Sete Cidades special stage is like the whole rally in a nutshell. This amazing and crazy test brought us a lot of emotions. It was very quick, very narrow, with some technical sections and the grip level changed so many times that we were not able to count those changes. During this terrific fight on the rim of the volcano my heart rate must have been close to maximum. This is why in some parts I tried to calm down and control my pulse in order to maintain the highest level of concentration. It is not easy to stay focused when your heart beats like crazy but on these challenging roads we can not afford to loose the concentration. We had a lot of fun in the car, although we experienced some minor issues with brakes at the end of the loop. However, we drove cleanly, without mistakes. It shows that this rally is also very demanding for our equipment. We are happy, we are leading after the first loop. This feeling is incredible but we have to remember that the rally is still very long.

2. Craig Breen (Ireland, Peugeot 208 R5) +6,7 s.

3. Ricardo Moura (Portugal, Ford Fiesta R5) + 58,1 s.

4. Bruno Magalhaes (Portugal, Peugeot 208 R5) + 1:27,7 s.

5. Robert Consani (France, Citroen DS3 R5) + 2:11,8 s.

6. Jose Pedro Fontes (Portugal, Citroen DS3 R5) + 2:16,6 s.

7. Sam Moffett (Ireland, Ford Fiesta RRC) + 2:50,0 s.

8. Dominykas Butvilas (Lithuania, Subaru Impreza STi) + 2:57,3 s.

9. Giacomo Costenaro (Italy, Peugeot 207 S2000) + 2:57,5 s.

10. Luis Miguel Rego (Portugal, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) + 3:06,9 s.

Starts of Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jarek Baran are supported by strategic partner of LOTOS Rally Team - LOTOS Group - as well as CUBE.ITG and Driving Experience. More info about Kajetan Kajetanowicz and the team available at: www.lotosrallyteam.pl, www.kajto.pl, www.facebook.com/EmocjeDoPelna, www.facebook.com/KajetanKajetanowicz and www.twitter.com/Kajto_pl