Strong finish for Lappi

Skoda works driver Esapekka Lappi finished ninth and picked up two points at the Rally Italy. He re-joined the rally on Sunday after Saturday’s retirements and won all Sunday’s four special stages with a series of outstanding times.  

June 14, 2016

Skoda works driver Esapekka Lappi finished ninth and picked up two points at the Rally Italy. He re-joined the rally on Sunday after Saturday’s retirements and won all Sunday’s four special stages with a series of outstanding times.

On the penultimate stage the Finnish duo set a blistering 5th fastest stage time overall, only beaten by 4 WRC cars. On the Power Stage, they finished 7th O/A, only 5 seconds adrift of World Champion Ogier, who was fastest.

“Everything went well and we led WRC2 after SS11. We knew the rally is rough, so we stayed to our plan and just be on the safe side. No risks. But unfortunately the day came to an sudden end on the Monte Lerno stage. It was big disappointment for us that we couldn’t fix the damage. Thank you to all the mechanics and ŠKODA team, who got our car up and running again on Sunday. On Sunday our simple plan was getting fast stage times, and we did. WRC2 9th is not what we were looking for in the end, but we have showed that we have the speed and we will go on the attack again at the Rally Poland, I promise!”

Esapekka and Janne will contest the next WRC 2 rally from 30 June to 3 July.