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First win for Lappi as Toyota top Rally Finland
Yet another winner in the thrilling 2017 season as WRC novice Esapekka Lappi – driving for only the fourth time at the top level of the WRC – won Rally Finland. Here are six key facts from the rally.
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So, Toyota driver Esapekka Lappi has won his first rally, there were some accidents the size of plane crashes and the average speeds approached Mach 2.
A normal Rally Finland in other words. But there were quite a few other things going on behind the scenes of round nine of the World Rally Championship that you probably didn't know about.
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Rally Finland 2017
Watch the best action from Rally Finland 2017
Here are our six facts about this year’s Rally Finland: the fastest, most unreconstructed and craziest rally of them all. Which is why we love it.
Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm celebrate the podium
© Ivo Kivistik/Red Bull Content Pool
Amazing, just amazing. I’m on my home soil so I should have been strong here and I was, but a victory was beyond my dreams. I have to really say a big thanks to the team because they built such a fast car in such a short time
1. None of the top five finishers had ever won a round of the WRC before, whereas the next five drivers behind them all have. For the Hyundai duo of Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo, as well as Citroën’s Kris Meeke, it was a difficult rally with a lack of pace, while Ott Tänak and Mads Ostberg showed speed but picked up damage on the high-speed roads. For years, everyone has said that you need experience to win Rally Finland. Maybe you just need optimism instead.
Meeke had a difficult rally with a lack of pace
© Ivo Kivistik/Red Bull Content Pool
2. Friday featured an unusual format of 12 stages, where the stages were run twice within the morning and then a completely different set of stages were run twice in the afternoon. If you’re confused, just think how the drivers and co-drivers must have felt. Usually, stages are only repeated once the drivers have had the chance to return to service and make changes based upon what they learnt during the first pass. Not so on Rally Finland. They’ve always done things slightly differently there.
Friday featured an unusual format of 12 stages
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
3. This year’s Rally Finland was expected to be the quickest World Rally Championship event in history. This feat was achieved, but Esapekka Lappi was only 0.1kph faster on average (126.7 kph) than Kris Meeke was in 2016. One factor in this may well have been the chicanes that organisers added to the route in order to stop speeds from getting too high. They weren’t universally popular: Juho Hänninen – who eventually finished the rally third, just 0.3s behind Elfyn Evans – already destroyed one in the shakedown, along with most of the bonnet of his Toyota.
The chicanes weren’t universally popular
© Ivo Kivistik/Red Bull Content Pool
4. Going into the final day, the top two drivers on the leaderboard only had five previous starts in World Rally Cars between them. Lappi was making his fourth start and Teemu Suninen (who ended up fourth) just his second. The Finnish pair were first and second in the WRC2 category last year. Proof that the feeder series actually works…
Teemu Suninen was happy with the result
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
5. Another fast Finn dominated WRC2 on this year’s event: Jari Huttunen. Mentored by Marcus Grönholm, he was over two minutes clear of the opposition, even though he only started his first rally in a four-wheel drive car two weeks ago. Grönholm himself was also around on Rally Finland (an event he’s won a record-breaking seven times) to present on Red Bull TV and to drive a Toyota Yaris WRC – similar to the car that won – around the Harju city stage in a special display. “I’m not allowed to say much about the car,” pointed out the two-time world champion, “but let’s just say that I understand now why it won!”
Another Finn dominated WRC2: Jari Huttunen
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
6. After Sébastien Ogier crashed out on the first day (and was unable to restart after his co-driver Julien Ingrassia suffered concussion), Thierry Neuville was able to move level on points with the Frenchman at the top of the standings. At the same stage last season, Ogier was 59 points clear. Ogier crashed on SS4 when he was distracted by a handling issue, failing to listen properly to a crucial pace note that would have prevented him from piling into the trees. The Fiesta WRC was fixed, but Ingrassia wasn’t – although he should be fine for Rally Germany, which is next on the schedule during the third week of August.
Sébastien Ogier crashed out on the first day
© Ivo Kivistik/Red Bull Content Pool
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