Lappi secured maiden win for Skoda

Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm claimed a historic first win for the new Fabia R5 in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC 2), when they drove in to victory at the Rally Poland.

July 07, 2015

Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm claimed a historic first win for the new Fabia R5 in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC 2), when they drove in to victory at the Rally Poland.

Together with team-mate Tidemand, they dominated the race on fast gravel roads with short asphalt sections, seemingly at will. About two thirds of the almost 300 kilometres against the clock were taken flat-out. The “Flying Finn” Esapekka Lappi moved into the lead on stage two, “Gorklo”, courtesy of the stage win and a spectacular average speed of 126.45 km/h, and never looked back. At the end his lead over team-mate Tidemand were 56 seconds. This was win number two at the Rally Poland for Lappi/Ferm. Back in 2012, when the event still belonged to the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC), the duo had triumphed on their debut for ŠKODA Motorsport.

“What an amazing win! Thank you to the ŠKODA team for doing a perfect job. The Fabia R5 was just brilliant,” said Lappi. “The win is also reward for a learning process. On Saturday and Sunday I managed to keep a cool head and control the race.”

Rally Poland –WRC 2 result

  1. Lappi/Ferm (FIN/FIN), ŠKODA Fabia R5 2:32:02.6 hrs
  2. Tidemand/Axelsson (S/S), ŠKODA Fabia R5 + 0:56.1 min
  3. Kruuda/Jarveoja (EST/EST), Citroën DS3 R5 + 2:05.3 min
  4. Ketomaa/Lindstrom (FIN/FIN), Ford Fiesta R5 + 4:54.1 min
  5. Kremer/Winklhofer (D/D), ŠKODA Fabia R5 + 5:11.9 min