Esapekka Lappi has announced his deal to drive for Toyota on next month’s Rally Finland, as first reported by DirtFish.
The 30-year-old confirmed the outing via his social media accounts, saying his return to Toyota for the first time since the end of the 2018 World Rally Championship season “feels like coming back home”.
“Together with Janne [co-driver Janne Ferm] we will give our very best for sure,” he said. “It’s nice to return to WRC.”
https://twitter.com/TGR_WRC/status/1433386484082651136
The agreement, which means Lappi will drive a fifth factory-specification Yaris WRC, is understood to be a precursor to a share of the team’s third manufacturer entry with Sébastien Ogier in 2022.
Lappi won his home round of the WRC in Finland with Toyota in 2017, on what was only his fourth start in a World Rally Car, and contested the remaining four rounds of that season and the full 2018 campaign with the team.
He then moved to Citroën for 2019 before a largely challenging campaign in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC in 2020, and so far this year has taken two WRC2 victories on the Arctic Rally Finland and Rally Portugal aboard a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5.
