Powerstage win for Lappi at Rally Italia Sardegna

At the end of an incredibly challenging four days for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, it was an excellent result: second for Jari-Matti Latvala, narrowing the points gap to the championship leader, while Esapekka Lappi was fourth, having claimed a remarkable six fastest stage times (including the Power Stage): more than any other driver this weekend. Juho Hänninen led the rally on Friday and also won a stage, eventually finishing sixth.

Lappi won the Power Stage on only his second rally in the Yaris WRC.

Esapekka Lappi:

“I’m happy with this rally, we learned a lot. Sunday was good, especially the Power Stage, as that’s a stage where a lot of the drivers are pushing very hard. For the first two stages today I was in full tyre saving mode: that’s why the times were not so good but in any case we had nothing to lose or gain. Then on the stage before the Power Stage I pushed a little bit harder to get a feel for the speed again, then on the Power Stage it was full attack, but we had no problems: clean with no mistakes. On this rally, the most important thing I learned was the driving style of the car on these slow and twisty roads; now I need to find out a bit more about how to drive the car when we get to fast roads.”