The qualification participants faced a 4.53 km long section. Before the decisive run, they had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with it during the training. The best result in the training was recorded by Vaidotas Žala and Ugnius Vainevičius with the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. With their best attempt, they completed the course in 2 min. 24.661 sec.
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It became clear already during the training that the fight among the favorites could be very close. Deividas Gezevičius with Evaldas Kvederis lost to Žala by only 0.717 sec. with their best attempt and took second place. Giedrius Firantas and Matas Valiulis, who showed the third best result, were 1.574 sec. behind the leader. Rokas Steponavičius with Markas Buteikis were fourth, Aras Kvedaras with Karolis Gedgaudas – fifth.
However, when the qualification started at 9:45, the training results were wiped out and twelve crews had to prove everything in a single run. Here, V. Žala was again the best. His and U. Vainevičius’s result was 2 min. 24.324 sec. In the qualification, the crew managed to drive even faster than in the morning training.
This time, the closest to V. Žala was not D. Gezevičius, but R. Steponavičius with M. Buteikis. The crew completed the course in 2 min. 25.042 sec., only 0.718 sec. behind the qualification winner. The third best result was recorded by D. Gezevičius and E. Kvederis – 2 min. 25.611 sec., or 1.287 sec. slower than V. Žala.
Fourth place in the qualification was taken by G. Firantas and M. Valiulis – 2 min. 26.096 sec., fifth were A. Kvedaras and K. Gedgaudas – 2 min. 27.002 sec. The sixth best result was shown by Poles Piotr Krotoszyński and Marcin Szeja – 2 min. 28.335 sec.
Next in line were Aron Domżała and Michał Kuśnierz, Paweł Ważny and Łukasz Jastrzębski, and Italians Matteo Bernini and Lorenzo Mattucci. The tenth result was recorded by Czechs David Tomek and Roman Svec, eleventh were Petras Šiaučiūnas and Žilvinas Juršys, and twelfth place was taken by Serhii Potiiko and Aras Kalėda.
Interestingly, the top three in the qualification were separated by only 1.287 sec., and the five fastest crews fit into an interval of less than three seconds. This showed even before the official rally start that a very fierce fight for the top positions in Rokiškis could take place.
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Meanwhile, the rest of the „Rokiškio Grand Rally“ participants spent Friday morning on the test special stage. The 4.18 km long shakedown could be completed several times by the athletes, searching for the most suitable car settings before the real competition began.
The fastest among the participants recorded in the test special stage results table was Justas Tamašauskas with Algirdas Pranckūnas. The Hyundai i20 VRT crew achieved a time of 2 min. 32.62 sec. on their second attempt. The second best result – 2 min. 39.40 sec. – was shown by Linas Vaškys and Laurynas Paškevičius with the Škoda Fabia N5, and third were Karolis Kairys and Kęstutis Baranauskas with the Ford Fiesta Rally3 – 2 min. 41.59 sec.
Next in line were Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Marius Kairys – 2 min. 41.64 sec., Irmantas and Edvinas Buivydai – 2 min. 45.26 sec., Mindaugas Grikienis and Donatas Gaidelis – 2 min. 46.92 sec. Paulius Beniušis with Kristupas Adinavičius recorded 2 min. 47.04 sec., Jaunius and Tauras Jasinevičiai – 2 min. 47.42 sec., Erikas and Robertas Valkeriai – 2 min. 48.17 sec., and Darius Sukackas and Evaldas Gezevičius – 2 min. 49.55 sec.
In total, there are 57 crews on the „Rokiškio Grand Rally“ participants list. The twelve fastest who took part in the qualification will now have the right to choose their starting positions for the first part of the rally based on their achieved results.
On Friday, the athletes will face the real fight – the first day of the „Rokiškio Grand Rally“ competition will begin, where it will be revealed whether the pace demonstrated by V. Žala in the qualification will carry over to the special stages, or if the rivals who lagged behind him by just fractions of a second in the qualification will challenge him.
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