This season, Lappi is defending his Finnish championship title by contesting a full season in the Finnish Rally Championship, and on top of that the Pieksämäki native will also drive selected WRC rallies with Hyundai.
Lappi’s return to the WRC after a one-season break came as a huge surprise to many. After all, Lappi had made it fairly clear that he was no longer interested in travelling the world and being away from his family.
However, a return to the WRC gradually began to appeal to the experienced rally driver again when he received a phone call in the autumn from Cyril Abiteboul himself, Hyundai’s team principal. The excitement did not spark immediately, though.
“The feeling after that phone call wasn’t quite as excited as it surely would have been for many others,” Lappi admits frankly in an interview with RallyJournal.com.
In the end, Lappi did agree, but the Finnish Rally Championship is still his so-called main series this season. The WRC programme has been built around the national series, not the other way round.
“It’s been built so that the events can’t overlap, and there won’t be long breaks from driving,” Lappi explains.
“The Finnish Championship supports the WRC in a certain way, and both support each other to some extent,” Lappi says.
According to Lappi, there is a very clear reason for this arrangement.
“The Finnish Championship setup was agreed before this WRC setup came into the picture. That’s why the Finnish Championship is the number one priority,” Lappi explains.
Lappi’s workload this season already begins on Saturday with the Mikkeli Rally. He is expecting a fairly difficult event.
“Mikkeli can be really difficult when there’s no proper road base and the roads aren’t frozen. There’s loose snow on top and we’re going first on the road. And now that the tyre rule has changed to short studs, the role of the snowplough car can be really challenging,” Lappi previews.
However, Lappi refuses to put any pressure on himself over the matter. Throughout the whole Finnish Championship campaign, his main focus has simply been on enjoying the driving. The results will come if they come.
“Mikkeli can go pretty much any way. There can be guys coming from behind faster with good starting positions, but there’s nothing you can do about that. Then we’ll have a good starting position again for next rally,” Lappi outlines.
The Mikkeli Rally will be held on 17 January.
