First place was ultimately secured by a margin of 20.5 seconds over Lauri Joona. Lappi pulled clear of his rivals already on the first loop of stages and was then able to manage the lead.
Lappi admitted that, in terms of driving, he did not need to put everything on the line. From the perspective of Škoda’s Finnish rally team, however, the situation was different.
“Well, I can’t say it came easily. At least if you ask the team, because it nearly got a bit hectic and there were illnesses and other things. Luckily we managed to get everything ready, right through to the service park. Perhaps there weren’t that many surprises in the driving itself,”Lappi described to RallyJournal.com.
“I was a bit surprised that from this starting position we could have such good pace.”
As last year’s champion, Lappi started first on the road. Due to the low-snow winter, the task may not have seemed impossible. Still, there was plenty to deal with.
“On stages one and five, the first five kilometres had really good surface. Then it turned into a snowier section. On stages two and three there were places where the car was sliding all over the place,”Lappi said.
“Grip varied a lot. That’s why it was difficult to find the right rhythm for the driving, to know when there was mechanical grip. Even though places were marked in the pace notes, it still caught you out a bit at times.”
The Finnish Rally Championship continues with the traditional Arctic Lapland Rally in a couple of weeks’ time.
