Two years ago at Rally Sweden, there was a beaming smile on Esapekka Lappi’s face after successfully ending a victory drought that stretched six and a half years. However, after this year’s run to sixth you could argue Lappi’s smile was even broader.
Granted, Lappi was incredibly satisfied to be immediately on the pace on his World Rally Championship return, a comeback he thought would never happen having already made peace with his WRC career ending in 2024. But there was more behind the smile.
“I’m not so stressed,” said Lappi when he was asked to explain the smile at the finish of Rally Sweden.
“I’m able to understand the fact that I’m not driving for my future anymore because I don’t really care about that and have plans for that. I just want to enjoy the Rally1 machines while they are still available.
“I think we did enjoy it. It is frustrating to see how far away we are from the Toyotas as a team. First, I thought it was just me and I’m not able to get up to the speed yet, but it was not only me, it was also the performance of the car. This was a bit frustrating but then to see us as the fastest Hyundai, that is satisfying after one and half years away.”
Esapekka Lappi, Hyundai World Rally Team
Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport
Indeed, the 35-year-old is free from the stress of driving for his future in the WRC having been hired by Hyundai to simply score points for the team when sharing the third i20 N alongside Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon.
In Sweden, Lappi and co-driver Enni Malkonen were the best Hyundai crew, sitting fifth for the majority of the rally. It was a position they would have held to the finish had Lappi not decided to cede the position to full-time team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, to allow the Frenchman to gain some extra championship points.
But Sweden was proof the speed remains. In fact, there have never been any question marks over Lappi’s pace during his career and this is perhaps best highlighted by the fact he and Malkonen won the Finnish Rally Championship – arguably the toughest national rally championship in the world – last year.
Although, behind his likeable dry wit at stage ends, Lappi has been known to be hugely self-critical, which he openly admits. But this aspect of his persona was absent in Sweden, and Lappi believes that is partly down to falling back in love with rallying last year.
“Three or four years ago I wanted too much basically, and I was forcing myself too much and I really didn’t understand how to enjoy it,” he said.
“In the time away, I did some national events, which I enjoyed a lot, and maybe I understood why I fell in love in the first place with this sport many, many years ago. I just try to recreate those feelings now.”
Another factor that has added to the injection of positivity inside the cockpit has been a new partnership with co-driver Malkonen – the 2024 WRC2 champion and 2022 WRC3 title winner – which began last year. Malkonen’s smiling face was a constant theme throughout Rally Sweden with the Finn clearly enjoying the high-speed stages and being back competing in rallying’s top tier.
“She [Enni] is so positive all of the time and the energy I’m getting, I am sucking from her,” added Lappi.
“The faster we go, and if it is flat, fifth gear and we go full sideways, that is what she likes. That is why I said she is weird [at the stage end] because for me these moments are a bit scary, but she likes them.”
The partnership won’t have too long to wait before it can reunite again, with the duo set to contest next month’s Safari Rally Kenya.
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