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Vaidotas Žala, driving with co-driver Ugnius Vainevičius in recent years, became the rally king here for the 6th time.
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Deividas Gezevičius and Evaldas Kvederis, who were hot on their heels throughout the rally, managed to win the final duel – the so-called “Power Stage” (Lithuanian: Power Speed Section, where additional championship points are awarded to the fastest racers), but it was not enough for victory. The Ukmergė residents “cut” 2.36 seconds from the leader’s 9-second lead, but ultimately finished second.
“The youngsters got on my nerves. I’m still not used to races where you have to count not even seconds, but tenths of them. The next championship stage is on Deividas’ home tracks, so it will be even harder to hold on there. It’s going to be a tough year,” V. Žala smiled, wiping sweat from his forehead, and admitted that victory in such a fight is much sweeter.
D. Gezevičius, after congratulating his competitor on defending the speed king title, also thanked V. Žala for his help and advice in taming one of the most modern rally cars.
“We carefully follow the results and try to find speed reserves. For example, in the penultimate stage, we tried to drive without overusing the brakes, but by speeding up in some corners, we complicated our situation before later corners. When we started driving more conservatively, the pace increased. I am incredibly happy,” beamed the “NEO Rally Žemaitija 2026” vice-champion.
The third step of the podium was taken by Rokas Steponavičius and Dovydas Ketvirtis’ crew, trailing the winners by less than 40 seconds. In some special stages, their results differed from the leaders by only hundredths of a second.
“In the last section of the rally, we tried to push, but we made a mistake in SS 7 and clearly realized that there was no point in risking more. The fact is that to speed up, we still need to work a lot,” Rokas revealed.
Fourth this time were the excellently driven Justas Tamašauskas with co-driver Algirdas Pranckūnas, trailing the winners by 1:23 min. Fifth – the crew of guests from Poland, Aron Domžala and Michal Kušnierz (+ 1:46 min). Throughout the entire race, an exceptionally fierce battle took place between the 6th and 7th placed crews of Giedrius Firantas-Aro Kalėda and Vytautas Švedas-Žilvinas Sakalauskas. At the finish, only half a second separated them.
Due to various technical failures and driver errors, 11 out of 65 starting crews did not reach the rally finish.
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