Esapekka Lappi has four very good reasons to forget last weekend’s Safari Rally Kenya – all four of them propshaft related.
But the Hyundai driver does have one very clear thing to be positive about – his speed.
And unusually, Lappi – known to be a very harsh self-critic – can see that, too.
While the Safari has been back on the World Rally Championship calendar for three seasons now, Lappi didn’t have a manufacturer drive in 2021 and was sat at home in 2022 as Sébastien Ogier – the man Lappi shared a Toyota with last term – took on the African challenge.
Last week was therefore Lappi’s first experience of traditionally the most demanding event on rallying’s global tour. But you wouldn’t have known it.
He’d written off his chances pre-event, suggesting to DirtFish that his “chances are not too high” for a top result, but one full day and seven stages in he was fourth with a stage win under his belt.
Granted, that scratch was claimed on the Geothermal test which Lappi claimed was “more Finland style” than Kenya – but to win his first Safari stage after just two proper attempts was impressive – particularly when you consider that he effectively didn’t do shakedown.
From SS5 through to SS10 (the stage before Lappi’s propshaft failed) the Finn was never outside the top four times – second fastest on half of them.
He had been on course for a podium finish before he was forced to pull up.
The weekend in result terms was therefore desperately frustrating, but Lappi impressed even himself with how well he managed to perform on the stages.
“For sure the pace what we had was, in my opinion, very, very good and really to challenge for podium was maybe a bit more than what I expected from myself because it’s not so simple to drive over here,” Lappi told DirtFish.
“But I did massive preparation work which feels a bit bad at the moment, frustrating at the moment. But sometimes it’s like this.”
Lappi had hoped to prove his pace once more on the powerstage, bravely opting not to take any spare tires for the final loop.
But his fourth and final propshaft problem prevented him from driving the first pass of the powerstage at speed, which ultimately hurt Lappi’s time on the real thing.
“For the powerstage I thought that I would check the pacenotes, well I checked the pacenotes in the morning, but I couldn’t drive fast enough to understand the grip levels and stuff on the first pass, so it was tricky, very tricky to be on the limit on the second time.
“A couple of times I was pretty close to finish already and I lost some time on these places, but I gave it a try for sure.”
The two points he ultimately claimed for fourth-fastest time were all Lappi had to show for the weekend, but lessons will be learned from the failures on his car.
Asked why it had affected him only over the Safari weekend, Lappi responded: “Very good question.
“There must be something related to the assembly, or something is wrong on the drivetrain line, I don’t know. I mean the others don’t have the problem but it’s the same chassis as in Sardinia, so I have no idea.
“But one time it’s a coincidence. Second time maybe. Four times no. So, I was a bit afraid to push full throttle on the powerstage but it lasted, so that’s good.
“For sure the team will check, they will analyze but it can be very challenging and for sure we cannot make it stronger – that’s for sure,” Lappi added.
“We can only adjust the car like we did already for this week and weekend to try to make it last longer.
“So yeah, a lot of question marks.”
