Lappi 4th at Rally Sweden

Running further down the order, Esapekka Lappi was able to set some strong stage times and climb from eighth to second position over the day’s first four stages. On stage six, he ran wide at a junction and collected a large amount of snow in his car’s air filter, reducing the amount of power available. He lost half a minute and ended the day in seventh position, one place in front of Latvala and two places in front of Tänak.

– The conditions were quite tricky. The second loop was even tougher than the first: it was very easy to make a mistake because the ruts were very deep and there was a lot of loose snow. I kissed a snow bank with the front of the car and got too much snow in the air filter, so I was lacking power in the last five kilometres and we lost half a minute. We are still in the game with two days to go though, and I think that there were also many positives today. I was a bit surprised with how good my speed was, so I just need to take that feeling with me for tomorrow and enjoy it.

On Saturday and Sunday Lappi and Ferm continued with their impressive pace and climbed in the overall classification. Just a few seconds shy of a podium position, they end 4th.

– To get the Power Stage win and gain two places today has been very good. I’m really happy for the team as well: at least we got some kind of good result from this weekend. It means I’m not so disappointed anymore about what happened to me on Friday. It’s so easy to make a mistake here. Overall the whole rally was quite strong. I wasn’t expecting this kind of speed from my side, so I’m really looking forward to coming back here next year.