Lappi was in a class of his own throughout the weekend in the opening round of the Finnish Rally Championship’s summer season, held in the Turku region, and sealed an impressive win.
He secured victory by 29.6 seconds over Anssi Rytkönen, who also impressed with his strong pace.
It was Lappi’s second win in this year’s Finnish Championship series, having previously triumphed in the final winter round in Savonlinna. With this result, Lappi has moved into the overall lead of the SM1 category.
“I was driving fairly steadily, though hopefully not so slowly that Anssi would catch me. It’s been a great day. Big thanks to our partners, the organisers, and of course the service guys too. We’ve had no major problems. We even made some changes to the car in the final service. This is great stuff!” Lappi told Flyingfinn.tv at the finish.
Lappi also confirmed his short-term plans – his focus remains solely on the next FRC round and spending time with his family.
“This Finnish Championship is the thing now. I’m heading fishing with our little one,” Lappi said with a laugh.
Lappi capped off his day by setting the fastest time on the final stage – a run of more than 30 kilometres – beating Tuukka Kauppinen by just 0.6 seconds. Thanks to his strong finish, Kauppinen climbed from fourth to third place, edging out Niclas Grönholm for the final podium spot.
“It was a clean rally for me. It’s been very slippery. If you even try to push a bit, it shows in the times right away,” Kauppinen summed up.
Anssi Rytkönen held firm in second place and secured a well-earned runner-up finish in Länsirannikon Rally. He was one of the standout performers of the event.
The strong Finnish results were rounded out by Tommi Jylhä, who finished fifth. Among the foreign drivers, Estonia’s Patrick Enok delivered the best performance, taking sixth overall and winning the SM2 category.
Behind Enok, Ville Vatanen claimed second place in SM2. The Finn lost out to the Estonian by 58.5 seconds.
The Finnish Rally Championship continues in Kouvola on 11–12 July.
Final results of the Länsirannikon Rally:
| POS | Driver | Car | Time |
| 1. | Esapekka Lappi | Skoda | 48:55.5 |
| 2. | Anssi Rytkönen | Skoda | +29.6 |
| 3. | Tuukka Kauppinen | Toyota | +37.9 |
| 4. | Niclas Grönholm | Skoda | +38.1 |
| 5. | Tommi Jylhä | Skoda | +1:36.4 |
| 6. | Patrick Enok | Ford | +1:56.6 |
| 7. | Kaspar Kasari | Ford | +2:30.4 |
| 8. | Jari Liiten | Skoda | +2:37.8 |
| 9. | Ville Vatanen | Renault | +2:55.1 |
| 10. | Mats Rinne | Skoda | +3:14.4 |
