The Lithuanian rally championship reached its halfway point last weekend. The Orlen Lithuania Rally featured two innovations. Firstly, the rally route extended far to the south, where there were two special stages with a significantly different profile than usual for this rally. The other thing is the weather conditions. The last time we had to deal with heavy rain and mud was in Utena in 2022, so everyone had to remember how to behave on a much more slippery surface.
The very first day of the rally brought some surprises, as the competitors drove on 4 gravel stages and a short asphalt section. Although it had rained a lot before the rally, the sun did its job and on Friday evening there was even dust in some parts of the special stages. However, the latter did not come out from under a Ford Fiesta N5 slowly approaching the finish in the second part of Friday. Unfortunately, this car belonged to Irmantas and Edvinas Buivydai, who struggled with problems and finished penultimate on the day. Nevertheless, this was incentive enough to continue the competition, as it was still possible to score a considerable number of points in the class. Paulius Beniušis’s great streak also came to an end – after Friday’s problems, the man from Kaunas prepared for the start on Saturday according to the super rally rule.
For all the other crews, however, things went quite well and, as always, the battle was not for seconds but for fractures of it. Irmantas Buivydas was replaced in this season’s regular three-way battle by Eugenijus Sladkevičius, who, having prepared his car perfectly and already working better with Gediminas Saudargas, was an impressive 0.05 seconds behind Deividas Gezevičius, who was in seventh place after the first day. Just six seconds away was Giedrius Firantas, who was after Eugenijus Sladkevičius. A little further on – a very entertaining battle between Tomas Šmagarys and Linas Vaškys, who switched to a different car for this rally.
On Saturday, the participants were greeted by threatening clouds, which did not take long to turn the Telšiai district into a very wet place. The three-way battle between the Fiesta, Fabia, and Polo over the remaining eight stages on Saturday was very even. Gradually, Deividas Gezevičius was pulling away from Eugenijus Sladkevičius, who was just as far away from Giedrius Firantas. Everything could indeed have ended much worse for Eugenijus, as the stone severely damaged the car’s suspension, but it all happened at a good time and Eugenijus paid with a small loss of time but very tired mechanics.
Meanwhile, Linas Vaškys lost his N5 rival Tomas Šmagarys from the ninth special stage and was forced to stop. Instead, it meant another very important thing – having just managed to partially repair the car in the evening and morning service, Irmantas Buivydas drove the rest of Saturday’s special stages confidently, moving up to 23rd position and collecting 2 place points in the LARČ5 standings. Meanwhile, Deividas Gezevičius, who drove a great rally, fulfilled one of his wishes – to take a photo on the podium with the guest of honor of the Orlen Lietuva Rally, Esapekka Lappi.
Now there is a very short break before the survival rally in Rokiškis, which starts in less than two weeks.
| Vairuotojas | Šturmanas | Automobilis | Komanda | Klasė | Laikas | Bendra įsk. | Klasėje | |||
 | Deividas Gezevičius | | Tomas Nenartavičius |  | Ford Fiesta N5 | Nordis racing team | LARČ1 | 58:26.29 | 6 | 3 |
| Eugenijus Sladkevičius | | Marius Kairys |  | Škoda Fabia N5+ | Samsonas Motorsport | LARČ1 | 58:48.97 | 7 | 4 |
| Giedrius Firantas | | Matas Valiulis |  | VW Polo N5 | Autoralis | LARČ5 | 59:03.46 | 8 | 1 |
| Linas Vaškys | | Laurynas Paškevičius | | Ford Fiesta N5 | ORLEN Lietuva-Mažeikių ASK | LARČ1 | 1:00:44.38 | 13 | 5 |
| Irmantas Buivydas | | Edvinas Buivydas | | Ford Fiesta N5 | 7Bet Racing by RALLY4FUN | LARČ5 | 1:04:10.55 | 23 | 2 |
| Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ABEPA ST-SPORT | LARČ5 | DNF | – | – |
| Tomas Šmagarys | | Valdas Čiuplys |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | AUTORALIS ASK | LARČ5 | DNF | – | – |
