Lappi holds a lead of over a minute after Saturday and is eyeing 18 provisional championship points.
Lappi drove with guaranteed caution on Saturday. He had to proceed slowly to avoid slipping off the road and jeopardising his chances. This situation has been somewhat foreign to the Finn in recent years, and adapting to anything new takes time.
“That kind of cautious driving annoys me. It’s obviously my choice, and I don’t want to take risks either. The driving is slow, and I don’t enjoy it one bit. But we accept it, knowing the situation. Of course, it’s a small disappointment not having that joy of driving,” Lappi said.
When intentionally trying to avoid mistakes, it’s usually easier to make them.
“Now we’re coming so damn slowly that you can’t go off at this speed. I know what you mean, but we’re going so slowly now that nothing can happen,” Lappi said, somewhat amused.
Lappi isn’t competing for the full season this year. This ensures that there’s no need to change tactics for Sunday, when there’s still a significant haul of points available.
“The plan is pretty clear since we’re not thinking about championship points. Those points on Sunday won’t do us any good. We’ll see on the Power Stage what the situation is, whether we can attack or not. That seems to be the discussion for tonight,” Lappi contemplated.
The conditions at Rally Sweden were considerably better on Saturday than on Friday, at least weather-wise.
“The stages weren’t that difficult. It was more about them being really hard on the tyres. The middle stage was okay because there was more ice. The first and third were again largely on gravel, which was aggressive on the tyres. There are surely drivers who are missing studs, but I’ve got all of mine. I just tried to keep the studs in the tyres, and I think I did quite well,” Lappi recapped.
Lappi has won only one event in his career, which occurred at Rally Finland in 2017 driving for Toyota. The current Toyota team principal, Jari-Matti Latvala’s retirement at that time handed the victory to him on a platter.
“It’s been about six and a half years now. It doesn’t change life in any way, but it would be a nice thing,” Lappi said about the possibility of his second win.
“I’ve had the chance to compete for victories in the meantime as well. Some of it I’ve messed up all by myself, and some have gone down to team orders,” Lappi continued.
