Rally Corsica 7th for Lappi and Ferm in their maiden C3 asphalt rally

March 31, 2019

Esapekka Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm got off to a good start of Rally Corsica and were lying 5th when a spin on SS3 saw them drop time on the opening day. – I pushed hard on the wide, fast sections of today’s stages but I had the same issues on the corners as Seb. And we also had a spin, which didn’t help matters. I have faith in the team to put things right and obviously on my side, I’m going to give it everything.

After the difficult start to the rally, Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm tried to optimise the handling of the C3 WRC throughout the next days of the rally, looking ahead to the rest of the season. A fourth fastest time on Saturday afternoon, just 2.9s off the stage-winning time (SS11), confirmed their approach proved effective and they made it to service after day 2 in seventh position. – Although we’re still not where we had hoped to be, the main thing is that we improved today. Our rhythm was better. Seb also set some good times, so that would suggest that we are moving in the right direction. We’re going to give it our all to finish the rally on a high tomorrow.

The final day of Rally Corsica was used to run through a range of set-up options on the C3 WRC and add to their experience in the car on tarmac. Their persistence was nonetheless rewarded with a seventh place finish, which also provided a worthwhile contribution to the overall team result. – We all had high hopes coming into this round, so obviously we can’t be satisfied with this result. We were short on performance and suffered quite a lot of understeer throughout the weekend. We’re going to work hard to put things right for the next rounds on tarmac, in Germany and then in Spain. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to getting back on gravel in Argentina.