The time had finally come – the Lithuanian summer rally season had begun. This time in a slightly different format than usual for the Visaginas rally, but the innovations were very well received. For many it was a great pleasure to drive on extremely fast and long special stages. The N5 team was no exception; for them, it was ideal training before the start of the LARČ in Lazdijai. Well, for everyone except Julius Masonas, who is taking part in the Lithuanian Car Rally Sprint Championship this year.

So Julius Masonas finished 22nd overall in the Visaginas 2025 Rally, but this result was not the most important one. Julius, who drove with Markas Buteikis, showed a very stable pace throughout the rally. After a 72-kilometer battle, the Renault Clio N5 crew finished the race in 7th place in the overall LARSČ standings and fifth in the Open class. Rokas Markovičius and Tomas Grigonis also competed in the LARSČ championship classification. However, the competition was not successful for them this time either. The Hyundai i20 N5 crew already had problems in the first special stages and had to withdraw from the competition halfway through.

The remaining five N5s competed in the Visaginas 2025 Rally guest classification, three of them having a fun battle with each other. Deividas Gezevičius was the fastest of this trio/ He was co-driven this time by Evaldas Kvederis and upgraded his car. Deividas and Evaldas battled for positions not only with their classmates, but also with a guest from Latvia – Martinš Kikusts. The Lithuanian was in the lead until the third special stage, but the extremely wide and fast SS3/4 suited the Latvian and his car better and the Ford Fiesta N5 crew dropped back to eighth place. Closest to Deividas were Eugenijus Sladkevičius and Marius Karius, whose Škoda Fabia N5+ was ultimately 27 seconds behind Deividas. Like Eugenijus, Paulius Beniušis and Kristupas Adinavičius tried to catch up. Although Paulius drove the last two city stages perfectly, it was not enough to catch Eugenijus, and the Citroen C3 N5 crew remained in tenth place overall.

Aurimas Eidžiūnas and Justas Barysas were a little further away from the trio and finished the race in seventeenth place overall. The pair battled in their Ford Fiesta N5 with many crews from Lithuania and Latvia for the smallest fractions of a second. Had it not been for the 5-second penalty, the crew from Vilnius would have been a little better placed. Speaking of the city stage: Audronis Gulbinas, who has a lot of experience on asphalt, felt like a fish in water on this stage. The man from Kaunas and Edvardas Gurevičius improved by five places in the last two special stages and finished 35th overall.

While everyone is waiting for the LARČ season opener in Lazdijai, the Lithuanian Mini Rally Championship is still scheduled to start next weekend in Kėdainiai, where we will probably see three N5 cars 🙂


DriverCo-driverCarTeamClassTimeOverallClass
Deividas GezevičiusEvaldas KvederisFord Fiesta N5ABEPA ST-SPORTSvečių / AWD+35:11.4587
Eugenijus SladkevičiusMarius KairysŠkoda Fabia N5+Elektrėnų ASKSvečių / AWD+35:39.3698
Paulius BeniušisKristupas AdinavičiusCitroen C3 N5ABEPA ST-SPORTSvečių / N536:11.14
101
Aurimas EidžiūnasJustas BarysasFord Fiesta N57Bet RacingSvečių / N537:32.39172
Julius MasonasMarkas ButeikisRenault Clio N5RallyLithuania.comOpen38:14.49225
Audronis GulbinasEdvardas GurevičiusVW Polo N5GSR MOTOSPORTSvečių / N539:58.99353
Rokas MarkovičiusTomas GrigonisHyundai i20 N5Gorilla BurgersOpenDNF––

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