Lappi breaks through in Sweden

Finland’s Esapekka Lappi has broken his FIA World Rally Championship victory drought by taking his first win in six and a half years.

The Hyundai driver prevailed in the snow while many of his more experienced rivals fell by the wayside.

It is Lappi’s first with the Korean manufacturer, after what was a tough end to last year, he thanked the team for their continuing support.

“It feels really good,” Lappi said. “I’ve been hunting for this second victory for quite a while. I would like to say a million things but probably I’ll forget many of them.

“But many thanks to Cyril (Abiteboul, Hyundai Motorsport president and team principal), he kept me in the team after a very bad second half last year.

“It’s quite a massive contrast from that moment until now, so thanks to the team and my family as well.”

By taking the win Lappi breaks the record of longest gap between WRC rally victories, but he was not the only good news story of the event.

Frenchman Adrian Fourmaux scored his first career WRC podium finish, after what has been a tough period for both himself and the M-Sport Ford team.

“It’s really, really good for us to be on the podium, after coming back to Rally1,” said Fourmaux. “It’s been two really hard years, but we never gave up and to be on the podium in Sweden is really special. Honestly, I have no words, it’s just so nice.”

Welshman Elfyn Evans finished the rally in second and took the maximum seven Sunday points home.

In doing so Evans reduces Thierry Neuville’s championship leading margin to just three points, however it could have been even less had he not clipped a snowbank in the Wolf Power Stage. As a result of the mistake Evans lost the Power Stage by 0.039s.

Neuville himself finished in fourth position, a good recovery after suffering from fuel pressure issues and the worst road position early in the weekend.

From there it was a tail of woe in WRC, reigning champion Kalle Rovanpera making a cameo appearance went off on Friday ruling him out of a Sweden Rally win, but he finished second on Sunday and claimed maximum points in the final stage.

Title contender Ott Tanak also went off the road on Friday and was in recovery mode from there, he was fourth fastest on Sunday and fourth on the final stage to collect a disappointing but potentially crucial six points.

It was a case of what could have been for Takamoto Katsuta, he led the early running of the event and on Saturday was locked in a battle with eventual winner Lappi.

The Japanese driver was within 1s of the rally lead when on stage 10 he made an error and buried his Toyota Yaris in the snow.

The mistakes from the WRC drivers opened the door for the WRC 2 competitors to score big points.

Oliver Solberg, the son of 2003 World Rally Champion Petter won WRC2 in Sweden for the second year running and in doing so finished fifth overall.

The top nine were rounded out by WRC 2 runners Sami Pajari, Georg Linnamae, Roope Korhonen and Mikko Heikkila. Tenth went to Italy’s Lorenzo Bertelli who was competing in a privately entered Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1 car.

WRC Championship Standings
1 Thierry Neuville 48
2 Elfyn Evans 45
3 Adrien Fourmaux 29
4 Sebastien Ogier 24
5 Ott Tanak 41

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