To mark the start of the second half of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship season, the contenders head to the Mazurian Lake District for ORLEN Rally Poland, the fourth consecutive gravel event of the year. Having run for the first time in 1921, this is the second oldest rally in the world behind Monte-Carlo and celebrates its 74th anniversary this year.

Based in Mikołajki, 250 kilometres north of Warsaw, this is one of the Championship’s fast loose surface events and has a passionate following by thousands of fanatical spectators. Sandy roads lined with tall grass make visibility on the approach to corners tricky, and corner cutting risky. Championship leader Sébastien Ogier, Toyota’s newcomer, Esapekka Lappi and Citroën’s Andreas Mikkelsen are the only three drivers on this year’s entry list to have previously claimed victory on the rally. Lappi won in 2012 when it was a round of the FIA European Rally Championship and in doing so became the youngest-ever winner in the history of the event. Ogier took wins in 2014 and 2015, and Mikkelsen in 2016 after Ott Tänak cruelly lost the win in the penultimate stage. The event also sees a strong following in the FIA WRC 2 Championship category and this is the third round of the FIA Junior WRC Championship. 

The experienced and popular Krzysztof Holowczyc, who has won the European Rally Championship, was three times Polish Rally Champion and three-time winner of Rally Poland, will this year be behind the wheel of one of the all-important zero cars. Jakub Przygonski, who is currently second in the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, will drive a second one.

Five stages will be broadcast live; SS10 on Friday, SS11 and SS15 on Saturday, and SS21 and SS23 on Sunday.

ROUTE GRAPHICS

THE 2017 ROUTE

Nearly a third of the route has not featured in the last three editions of the event. After the first of three runs over the Mikołajki super special stage on Thursday evening, Friday remains largely unchanged from 2016 with two loops of four stages to the northeast. Saturday features one new stage, Pozezdrze, which is driven twice, and Sunday covers two tests, Orzysz and Paprotki, the latter replacing Sady as the all-important Power Stage.

WHAT WE SAID…

“Rally Poland is full of heritage, it has a huge following and when we conducted our fan survey a couple of years ago it showed it has the biggest fan base of any event,” said Jarmo Mahonen, FIA Rally Director. “Having the HQ, Service Park and super special stage all within the same area is also a real bonus for the spectators, it creates a great atmosphere around the event and means the fans can really feel part of the action.”

RALLY DATA

MEDIA ACCREDITATION

The Accreditation Centre is located at Rally HQ, Hotel Golebiewski, 11-730 Mikolajki, 34 Mragowska street. The opening hours are:

RALLY POLAND TIMETABLE AND MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES ORGANISED BY THE FIA

FIA PRESS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

MANUFACTURER ENTRIES, RALLY POLAND

ADDITIONAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES 

Autograph Signing Session: On Friday and Saturday selected crews will be available for a 15 minute autograph session. This will take place in the service park during the end of day service at the teams’ service areas. 

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS

The provisional classifications for all the WRC Championships can be found on the following link:

http://www.fia.com/events/world-rally-championship/season-2017/standings

STAGE CHART

Shortly after the finish of the event, a downloadable stage chart showing the progressive positions of the leading crews during the rally will be available. This is copyright free for editorial purposes and available at the following link:

http://www.fia.com/events/world-rally-championship/season-2017/stage-chart-19