Lappi had earlier received a call himself from Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul. The Hyundai boss asked about Lappi’s willingness to contest selected WRC rallies in the 2026 season with Hyundai’s Rally1 car.
At first, Lappi was not particularly excited by the call, but then he picked up the phone again and called his co-driver Enni Mälkönen. And now there was excitement and amazement to be heard.
“There was silence for a moment. At first she could hardly believe it, whether it was even true. But I’m not that strange that I would have tricked her. After the initial shock, she has of course been insanely excited and happy that she now gets back to where she belongs,” Lappi tells RallyJournal.com.
The word excitement is at this point a somewhat mild expression. Mälkönen was, in fact, downright shocked by Lappi’s call.
“The first thing EP asked on the call was whether I was sitting down at the moment,” Mälkönen laughs.
“It really was quite good that I was sitting. It was something I absolutely did not expect at all,” Mälkönen continues.
In addition to selected WRC rallies, Lappi and Mälkönen will also contest the full Finnish Championship this coming season. Although last year ended with Finnish Championship gold celebrations, the duo – and especially Mälkönen – were still left with something to chew on.
The Arctic Rally in Rovaniemi ended in victory for great prospect Tuukka Kauppinen, and now Mälkönen has made it clear that this year she wants the reindeer antlers handed to the winner.
Esapekka Lappi, are you going to fulfil your co-driver’s wish?
“Well of course we’ll try, but it comes alongside the enjoyment,” Lappi replies.
