After the six special stages completed on Friday, the situation was more favorable for D. Gezevičius. He was leading the overall standings, ahead of V. Žala in second place by 3.97 seconds. On Friday, D. Gezevičius had won four special stages, while V. Žala won two.
However, the leader position from the first day had another side on Saturday – D. Gezevičius had to start first in all the second day special stages. On gravel, this meant he had to clear the way from loose surface, while V. Žala, starting behind, could drive on a somewhat cleaner trajectory.
On Saturday morning, V. Žala immediately began to erase the deficit. He started the second day of the rally with four consecutive special stage wins – he was the fastest in the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth stages. This streak not only eliminated the 3.97-second gap from Friday but also allowed him to take the lead in the „Rokiškio Grand Rally“.
In the eleventh special stage, Aron Domżała and Michał Kuśnierz interrupted V. Žala’s winning streak. However, in the twelfth and thirteenth stages, V. Žala was again the fastest. D. Gezevičius responded with wins in the fourteenth and fifteenth special stages, but by then V. Žala had already built an advantage that allowed him to control the situation.
Another important step towards victory was taken by V. Žala in the longest, 17.95 km sixteenth special stage. V. Žala and U. Vainevičius completed it in 8 minutes 34.44 seconds and secured another win. In the last, seventeenth stage, A. Domżała recorded the best result, but it did not change the outcome of the fight for the overall victory.
At the finish, V. Žala and U. Vainevičius recorded a time of 1 hour 9 minutes 3.97 seconds. D. Gezevičius and E. Kvederis, who took second place, lost to the winners by 16.48 seconds.
Third place in the overall standings was taken by Rokas Steponavičius and Markas Buteikis. Their deficit to the winners was 43.17 seconds.
The overall rally special stage statistics also reflect V. Žala’s pace. The winners were the fastest in nine out of 17 special stages. D. Gezevičius and E. Kvederis won six, and A. Domżała and M. Kuśnierz two. Thus, only three crews shared all 17 special stage victories.
A fierce battle also took place among two-wheel-drive cars. In the 2WD category, the victory went to Estonian representatives Markus Tammoja and Karol Pert with a BMW M3. Their final result was 1 hour 14 minutes 54.81 seconds.
Second place in this category was taken by Giedrius Notkus and Dalius Strižanas with a BMW M3. The Lithuanians were 33.74 seconds behind the winners. Third place went to Darius Sukackas and Evaldas Gezevičius, who were 46.40 seconds behind the 2WD category winners.
„Rokiškio Grand Rally“ proved to be a serious challenge for both the crews and their equipment. Out of 57 crews that started the competition, 20 ended up on the retirement list. Their performances were cut short by technical failures and accidents.
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