For the first time in the history of rally competitions in our country, a World Rally Championship (WRC) team will compete here delegating its driver. At the invitation of the organizers, the Hyundai Motorsport team will come to the Žemaitija region. The friendship between this team and Lithuania began in 2017, when Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo trained during private tests in the Zarasai district. After a seven-year break, the German-coordinated team is returning to Lithuania, bringing with it the fastest and most modern rally car in the world – the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid. The Finn Esapekka Lappi will be behind the wheel.
Hyundai Motorsport’s second visit to Lithuania will begin on Friday. The organizers will hold a shakedown stage for them separate from all other participants. A little later, the guests of honor should take part in the highlight of the event – the “ORLEN Lietuva Rally 2024” rally itself. Hyundai Motorsport did not choose the surroundings of Mažeikiai, Akmene, Viekšniai and Telšiai by chance – in a week’s time, the round of the World Rally Championship will take place in neighboring Latvia. In addition, it is worth mentioning that from 2023, all Rally1 class cars was allowed to participate in national competitions. For the factory teams, such local events are an excellent testing ground before the upcoming main battles in the WRC championship: they not only test their cars in similar racing conditions, but also bypass the strict limit of 21 test days per year. It goes without saying that the organizer inviting guests of this caliber had to meet all its requirements which are quite big.
Thierry Neuville, the world championship leader, was also due to come to Mažeikiai. After the Polish WRC round, the Belgian expressed his concern about the non-functioning engine map program, which was updated shortly before the rally. According to the original plan, the contender for the world title, wanted to test and prepare the car before the WRC event in Latvia next week in “ORLEN Lietuva Rally 2024”, but “life” happened. Last week, Thierry’s teammate Ott Tanak was also in his home country to prepare for his upcoming start in the world championship. The team prepared a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid with chassis number 20 for him, which is used exclusively for training in private tests or national rallies. A week later, his team colleague was due to appear on Lithuania rally in this car. But the fastest Estonian really crashed a the car on the second stage of the Rally Estonia. The video of the accident has already gone around the world. There were a lot of comments and different opinions about incident. According to reliable sources, the cause was a technical defect – a blocked reduction gear. On the same day, the team began bodywork at local Estonian service centers, but later decided not to bring the second car to Lithuania with the team leader.
“ORLEN Lietuva Rally 2024” will consist of 13 special stages and 103.54 competitive kilometers over two days. The first leg will start on Friday evening with 3.88 and 9.13 km long stages, which will be driven twice. Later, at late evening the crews will complete a very short 1 km tarmac special stage in Viekšniai town before bringing the cars into the Parc Ferme. The second leg starts before midday and has a classic format: two stages (11.26 km and 8.69 km) will be driven twice, after which a 45-minute service zone awaits the competitors. After that, two more stages (6.84km and 11.45km) will be ridden twice.
The rally itself consists of fairly flat terrain and long straights, but two completely new Saturday stages in the Telšiai region will spice up the rally route with one winding and one very tight/technical forest stage.
As there will be no direct rival for Essapeka Lappi, it is also worth keeping an eye on the national field. There will also be something historic, as Dakar rally competitor Vaidotas Žala will drive the latest evolution of the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, prepared by the Sport Racing Technologies team, for the first time in Lithuanian rally history. He will be chased by Vladas Jurkevičius with the older Evo version of the Škoda Fabia, whose famous design has been seen at several WRC and ERC events nearby in recent years. The other three Škoda Fabia R5s will try to keep the same pace, with former Lithuanian rally champion Giedrius Notkus among the favorites to win the national field. Another very interesting entry to keep an eye on, is very fast Latvian Emils Blūms, which after many years of Mitsubishi driving will try out Hyundai i20 VRT Proto car with very unique doublle-wishbone susspension. Two Ford Fiesta Rally3s will also compete with two very young and promising Polish drivers Adrian Rzeznik and Tymoteusz Abramowski. In addition to other FIA cars, 3 different Rally2-kit(R4) cars will also be on the grid.
Live results and GPS mapping will be available at www.autorally.lt
