Rally Estonia fell short of Esapekka Lappi’s expectations, so what has he done to improve his prospects for this week’s Rally Finland?
Two weeks ago – on his first World Rally Championship event in four months – Lappi and co-driver Enni Mälkönen finished eighth overall, unable to beat team-mates Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux on any of the event’s 18 stages.
Returning home to Finland – an event Lappi won nine years ago for Toyota – Lappi has been working extremely hard to rectify things.
He talked DirtFish through his preparations.
“We didn’t do any testing or anything between, so it was just to watch the computer the whole week to understand where I lose [time],” Lappi explained. “Compare the data, compare the videos.
“I’ve done I don’t know how many hours of this work last week. And then also to try to learn the stages of this week, you know, to check the recce videos. So yeah, I’ve been sleeping a lot in front of the computer and doing the homework.”
Early indications are encouraging: Lappi was quickest of the Hyundai drivers on the first run of shakedown and eventually tied with Rally Estonia winner Sami Pajari, 1.9s off the benchmark time.
“I checked myself, compared the onboards, then I asked for the data, and then we did that together with the engineer,” the Finn continued. “And yeah, we found the spots and what I’m doing wrong. I should change the driving style a bit. This is quite difficult, but I will try.
“OK the time gap is quite big but it’s such small details which matter. I lose one tenth in that corner, then again the tenth in the next one, and it just might be that I’m 2km/h slower on this corner or something like that. Sometimes it feels ridiculous you know, but it’s just the confidence what you need to have, and with the tires it’s challenging.”
Adjusting to the nature of the Hankook rubber has proved Lappi’s biggest challenge – something which didn’t affect him in Sweden or Kenya given the specific nature of those events.
Lappi is hopeful his homework will pay off at his home event
“I think there was plenty of drivers last year when the tires came who were struggling with it a bit to understand it, to adapt the car and the driving into it. And yeah, I haven’t had so much time,” Lappi admitted.
“OK, in Kenya, yeah, I drove with this tire, but it’s quite different. So yeah, it was a bit of a shock to realize that it’s so different than what I had in the past.”
Friday’s flat-out stages will provide the true answer as to whether all of his homework has paid dividends, but Hyundai sporting director Andrew Wheatley has been impressed by Lappi’s dedication.
“EP had a bit of work to do, but he’s gone away and done an incredible job,” Wheatley told DirtFish.
“Evaluating everything, looking at every different piece of data that he possibly can, and to come out and be fastest of the three [cars] on the first run… fair play, it takes some doing.
“What was interesting was it wasn’t just one run of the shakedown that he was competitive, it was three runs.
“The rallies have gone exactly the right way for EP,” added Wheatley. “This is the rally where he has the opportunity to really fight, and he had the opportunity to do three days of evaluation and improvement on Estonia. And I hope that we can carry the positive experience.
“But beating five Toyotas, each of which have won a rally this year, at least one rally, is not easy. It’s not easy.”
