The second winter round is the legendary Arctic Lapland Rally. Lappi and Mälkönen already competed together in the Rovaniemi area last year, but on that occasion they had to settle for second place in the SM1 class, as Tuukka Kauppinen claimed a sensational victory.
Since then, Lappi’s equipment has been updated to Škoda’s latest Rally2 package, which he showcased at the season opener. Lappi and Mälkönen secured a near-dominant win at the Finnish Championship round in Mikkeli, held just over a week ago.
“It’s nice to head to the Arctic Lapland Rally. We’re coming off a winning start to the FRC season, so it’s a good place to continue from. The new Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 has proven to be really good both in testing and in the Mikkeli Rally,” Lappi reported.
Lappi already has one victory from the Arctic Circle. During his first championship-winning season in 2012, he celebrated victory at the Arctic Lapland Rally together with Janne Ferm.
For Lappi’s current co-driver Enni Mälkönen, however, a win in the iconic event is still missing.
“We’ll head out again with a relaxed mindset and try to drive Enni her first set of reindeer antlers,” Lappi promises.
The Arctic Lapland Rally features a strong entry list. Among those starting is Toyota WRC star Elfyn Evans, who cannot, however, compete for the main prize, the reindeer antlers awarded to the winner of the SM1 class.
In SM1, Lappi will face competition from drivers such as Lauri Joona, Roope Korhonen, Mikko Heikkilä and last year’s winner Tuukka Kauppinen. Two highly rated Estonian prospects, Jaspar Vaher and Patrick Enok, are also entered.
Among these drivers, the reindeer antlers have previously been won by Kauppinen and Heikkilä, the 2024 Arctic winner.
The Arctic Lapland Rally shakedown is scheduled for Thursday. The rally gets properly underway on Friday with six special stages, followed by a further six stages on Saturday to conclude the event.
