Lappi and Mälkönen were utterly dominant on the fast special stages around Mikkeli. A total of seven stages were run in the rally, with Lappi setting the fastest time on six of them.
The only blemish in Lappi’s performance came on the final stage, where he had a small spin. He missed out on a clean sweep of stage wins by just 0.3 seconds.
“There was no mess anywhere else, but there it was. The rear just started to slide, and it was easier to turn the car the other way. I doubt it cost more than a couple of seconds, maybe two,” Lappi laughed.
Defending Finnish Rally Championship champion Lappi ultimately secured victory by a clear margin of 20.5 seconds over Lauri Joona.
Joona was involved in a tight fight for second place in the Mikkeli Rally with Benjamin Korhola. Korhola closed to within striking distance, but on the final stage Joona beat his rival by 3.2 seconds, sealing second place by a margin of 4.6 seconds.
“It was an okay rally, but today we weren’t able to match Esapekka. There are still a few areas to develop, but overall it was a decent performance. Once I gain more confidence in what I’m doing, better results will be possible,” Joona said.
Niclas Grönholm finished fourth overall, despite having been sixth for a long time on the results list. Grönholm had to slow down on the penultimate stage, which cost him a couple of minutes.
“Our tracking device showed an SOS message on the previous stage, so we drove that one cautiously because we didn’t know if someone was in trouble,” Grönholm explained.
Grönholm was later awarded a nominal time for stage six, which lifted him ahead of Anssi Rytkönen. He eventually finished 35.8 seconds behind Lappi.
The Mikkeli Rally was halted for more than an hour following an accident involving Swedish driver Jari Liiten on stage five. Liiten and co-driver Per Almkvist were taken to hospital for further checks due to back pain.
Most crews were unable to run stage five after Liiten’s accident, which led to a long wait for the final results.
Victory in the SM2 class went to Rio Ogata, who is part of Toyota’s WRC Challenge Program. Ogata also impressed by finishing sixth overall. The Japanese driver’s performance was underlined by the fact that he beat both Challenge Program Rally2 drivers, Takumi Matsushita and Shotaro Goto. Second in the SM2 class was Kanta Yanaguida, ahead of Pekka Keski-Korsu.
The second round of the Finnish Rally Championship season, the Arctic Lapland Rally, will be held at the end of January.
Mikkeli Rally results after SS7/7:
| POS | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Esapekka Lappi | Skoda | 45:53.9 |
| 2. | Lauri Joona | Skoda | +20.5 |
| 3. | Benjamin Korhola | Hyundai | +25.1 |
| 4. | Niclas Grönholm | Skoda | +35.8 |
| 5. | Anssi Rytkönen | Skoda | +1:28.3 |
| 6. | Rio Ogata | Toyota | +2:29.0 |
| 7. | Takumi Matsushita | Toyota | +2:34.0 |
| 8. | Kanta Yanaguida | Toyota | +2:43.8 |
| 9. | Pekka Keski-Korsu | Renault | +2:58.3 |
| 10. | Shotaro Goto | Toyota | +3:09.3 |
