Last year, Lappi crashed out and hit a birch tree in Finland. This time, the outcome was the same, but the tree was different. This time, his Hyundai collided head-on with a pine tree.
The encounter with the Finnish forest severely damaged the front of the car and also tore off one of the rear wheels along with its suspension. The result was a forced retirement from the rally.
“The car bottomed out in the rut, and the rear bounced. This caused the front to go down, and then the front bottomed out, shifting the line. Then there were trees in the way. I didn’t expect it to rise out of such a deep rut like that,” Lappi recounted of his crash on the sixth special stage.
Lappi couldn’t fully predict the condition of the road in advance.
“I didn’t know it would go like that. I knew it would rut because it’s a new road. I’m not sure if the road was even made specifically for this rally to connect two roads, but it looked like it. Still, I didn’t expect the car to bounce like that,” Lappi admitted.
“We came into it a bit slower than on the first run. My co-driver also thought we came into it really slowly, but still too fast,” Lappi continued.
Lappi immediately knew things had gone badly.
“We were probably only going about 70 kilometres per hour, but whenever the front hits a tree, it’s going to break something. Trees don’t give way at all.”
Lappi spoke to the media after a conversation with team principal Cyril Abiteboul.
“They are disappointed. Of course. But they also understand that this can easily happen. They just said, let’s get the car fixed and get back out there tomorrow,” Lappi revealed.
Lappi entered the Rally Finland with a positive mindset, hoping for a good result in front of his home crowd after a disappointing rally in Latvia. The disappointment was enormous.
“I feel pretty bad right now. I don’t know… it’s hard to gather my thoughts,” Lappi said, visibly emotional.
The WRC’s new and controversial points system is now needed for Lappi and the entire Hyundai team. Lappi couldn’t yet see the silver lining.
“It doesn’t really console me much right now. Of course, it’s good that there’s a chance to still get points for the team,” Lappi said.
Lappi also had a brief meeting with teammate Ott Tänak. Tänak’s day ended early in the morning when he crashed heavily on the Saarikas stage. Tänak emerged from the severe crash without serious injuries, but his co-driver, Martin Järveoja, was airlifted to hospital. Järveoja will remain in the hospital overnight for observation, ending Tänak’s rally.
“We mainly talked about Martin and how he’s doing. Of course, we also went over his crash and mine. The team is not doing very well right now. This was a really bad day for our team,” Lappi lamented.
