Lappi made his return to the World Rally Championship last week after a break of over three months. This season, Lappi is only competing in selected events, and he struggled with his car’s setup at the Rally Latvia, leading to a disastrous weekend.
Before the Latvian event, Lappi predicted he had a chance to fight for podium positions in the new WRC event. However, things didn’t go as planned.
During his test on Thursday, Lappi refused to publicly state his target for the Rally Finland.
“This is a new opportunity. It’s probably best not to talk about what to expect. My prediction for Latvia was way off,” Lappi reflected.
“Let’s aim for a better performance than in Latvia and hope that the speed is better right from Friday.”
Watch the video and see photos from Lappi’s test below:
Lappi worked on fine-tuning the settings of the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car at the team’s test area in Central Finland. Both Hyundai and Toyota actively utilise their test roads, as outside the official test area, teams are limited to only 21 test days per year.
This limitation poses a particular challenge for part-time drivers who don’t get regular time behind the wheel of a rally car. Additionally, drivers are familiar with every metre of the test roads, which may not be ideal for preparing for competition.
“With test days restricted, you don’t get as much time in the car as you need. You can get around the restrictions with test rallies, but that didn’t seem to work either (before the Latvian WRC round). Apparently, I couldn’t set up the car correctly in the test race,” Lappi admitted.
The Rally Finland will take place from 1st to 4th August.
