18-year-old rising star stuns with Arctic Lapland Rally victory! Kalle Rovanperä and Esapekka Lappi left trailing behind

At just 18 years old, the third-generation driver has become the youngest winner of the legendary Arctic Lapland Rally in history. His winning margin over Toyota Rally1 driver Kalle Rovanperä was 11.5 seconds. However, Rovanperä was not competing for the overall victory in the Finnish Championship.

“It was a tough stage. A lot of loose snow, and the lines were all over the place. I drove cautiously, made no mistakes. That’s just how it is. We focus on our own work, and this approach works well. Our goal is the top, and this is a pretty good start,” Kauppinen commented in an interview with FlyingFinn.tv.

Kauppinen represents Rautio Motorsport and competes in a Toyota Rally2 car. He outpaced Esapekka Lappi in the Finnish Championship standings by nearly half a minute. Lappi drove an older development version of the Škoda Fabia Rally2. The battle between the two was decided during the opening run of the long Sarriojärvi stage on Saturday morning when Lappi slid into a snowbank, losing 30 seconds.

“We pretty much achieved our goal. We had fun and laughed a lot in the car. I didn’t get the win, but Tuukka drove so well that I’m proud of him. It’s a great thing for Tuukka to make a statement like this, and it will definitely boost his profile. It’ll get his name in front of key decision-makers,” Lappi said.

Toyota’s WRC star Kalle Rovanperä participated in the rally as a crucial test event. He was running on new Hankook studded tyres with 6.5 mm studs, while Finnish Rally Championship drivers had longer studs. Although Rovanperä’s tyres provided less grip, the loss to Kauppinen was still somewhat surprising.

“It’s all good. A valuable weekend for us. It’s a shame the last stage was so snowy. With these tyres, you can’t do much. You have to drive incredibly slowly, and even then, there were some big moments. The contact patch is so small with these studs that it feels like driving on summer tyres,” Rovanperä summed up.

Rautio Motorsport had an excellent weekend, with Roope Korhonen securing third place in the SM1 class. Teemu Asunmaa finished fourth, and Niclas Grönholm took fifth place.

Driving an old Ford WRC car, Mikko Eskelinen finished seventh. Toyota’s team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, competing in a historic-class Toyota, secured eighth place overall.

“It’s frustrating at the moment. I was trying to have a clean rally, but I don’t know what went wrong. We tried changing a spark plug and a sensor, but couldn’t fix the issue. It’s annoying to have this happen right at the end,” Latvala said.

The Finnish Rally Championship continues in early March in Savonlinna, marking the final round of the winter season. The summer season will feature four more rounds.

Arctic Lapland Rally results: