Lappi, a long-time WRC competitor, returned to Finnish special stages in Rovaniemi as the clear favourite for the Arctic event. However, Friday’s stages showed that this would be anything but a straightforward victory for him.
The 18-year-old Kauppinen put in an impressive performance on Friday’s stages. Lappi started the rally strong with two stage wins, but soon, Kauppinen – driving a Toyota Rally2 car – matched his pace and eventually moved ahead.
Heading into Saturday, Kauppinen holds a 2.8-second lead over Lappi, who is competing in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo.
“Tuukka is driving really well. Hats off to him. And considering his experience – he doesn’t have many rallies under his belt with a Rally2 car – he’s handling it impressively,” Lappi praised the 18-year-old in an interview with RallyJournal.com.
Lappi had anticipated that Kauppinen would be one of his strongest challengers in the Arctic conditions. However, the youngster’s stunning pace was beyond expectations – a true sensation in the making.
“I expected Tuukka to be in the fight at the front, along with Lauri Joona. Lauri had some issues, but it seems he wasn’t quite able to match the pace anyway,” Lappi commented.
Lappi admitted to making a mistake on Friday that cost him some time.
“In the slower sections, everything is fine, but at high speed, I can’t push as hard as I’d like. There’s nothing wrong with the car, but I made the wrong tyre choice. I went with studs that were too tall today, and it backfired,” Lappi explained.
“The studs didn’t bite into the ice properly – they just bent at high speed, which caused the car to slide. I lost a lot of time because of that. But tomorrow, I’ll switch to studs of a different length, which was my plan all along.”
So, will Saturday be full attack mode, with the junior being put in his place?
“We’ll see. Of course, I’ll try to push as hard as I can, but I’ll also keep my head in check,” Lappi smiled.
The Arctic Lapland Rally concludes on Saturday with seven special stages covering a total of 124 stage kilometres.
