Participating on a part-time basis in this season’s World Rally Championship, Lappi made excellent use of his advantageous starting position in Sweden.
Lappi quickly joined the battle for the lead and soon discussions began about the possibility of a Finnish double victory, as Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä was also in the mix for the win at that stage.
However, the rally took a dramatic turn on Friday morning. Rovanperä crashed on the Floda stage, forcing him to retire due to a broken radiator. But would Lappi have celebrated his second career victory in Umeå if Rovanperä had remained in the competition until the end?
Lappi’s teammate, Thierry Neuville, has a clear opinion on this.
“Obviously,” Neuville answered when asked by Dirtfish.
“Kalle was out of the race very quickly, but still, I think EP would have been capable – from his road position – to do a good enough job to end up in the first place,” Neuville continued.
Lappi drove incredibly wisely in Sweden. After his only real challenger, Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, crashed out on Saturday morning, Lappi was left in a somewhat thankless position. He had to start consolidating his victory. Lappi did this flawlessly, eventually taking a quite commanding win.
“EP did a fabulous job,” Neuville praised.
“Once Kalle was off, he had a clever approach, he managed throughout the whole weekend his gap without making any mistakes and bringing home that second victory for the team in two rallies, which is the same amount as we had last year on a full season.”
It had been six and a half years since Lappi’s previous victory at Rally Finland in 2017, where he last stood atop the podium.
The journey to his second victory was long and rocky, with the latter part of Lappi’s last season being a nightmare due to numerous severe crashes.
“It was a nice comeback. He suffered a lot second half of last year and it was very demanding for him mentally as well,” Neuville said.
“But with a good team around and the proper support from the team and the management, it’s possible to come back as strong as he was this weekend and that’s good to see,” Neuville concluded.
