Lappi, one step away from his second World Cup victory in Sweden

the finnish Esapekka Lapi (Hyundai i20) is one step away from achieving its second victory in the World Championship, more than six years after the first, because this Sunday it will face the final stage of the second round of the event, Rally Sweden, with the profit which was 1:06.3 minutes in second place, Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux (Ford Puma).

Behind Fourmaux, chasing his first podium, is the British Elfyn Evans (Toyota GR Yaris), third in 1:23.0, and the leader of the World Championship, the Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20), fourth in 2: 22.1.

Lappi, 33 years old and who won Rally Finland on July 30, 2017 at the wheel of a Toyota Yaris in his only World Cup victory so far, commands authority in the only round of the championship to be held in the snow and ice today. whose leadership was taken after the penultimate stages of the day of Friday’s difficult stage, where the Finnish Kale Rovanperä (Toyota) and the Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai) were abandoned.

This Saturday, the driver of Pieksämäki, who recently arrived at Hyundai from Toyota, knows how to manage his income, especially the Japanese Takamoto Katsuta, the only one who seems to overshadow him, was left in action.

After his excellent work on Friday, Katsuta started the second stage 3.2 seconds behind Lappi, and managed to reduce that gap to just 9 tenths of a second after Saturday’s first special.

But his hopes of securing his first World Championship victory were dashed when the Japanese stuck his Toyota GR Yaris in a snowbank 3.4 km from the start of the second special of the third day and as he pressed Lappi for the lead . . Despite their efforts to free the car from the snow, Katsuta and his co-driver Aaron Johnston were forced to pull over.

It became clear for Esapekka Lappi that this Sunday will start the last stage, with only three sections, with more than big profits.

Classifications

Third day

1. Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (FIN/Hyundai) 2h03.52.0
2. Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (FRA/M-Sport Ford) +1:06.3
3. Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (GBR/Toyota) +1:23.0
4. Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL/Hyundai) +2:22.1
5. Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (SWE-GBR/Skoda WRC2) +4:01.1
6. Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (FIN/Toyota WRC2) +5:15.1
….20 Raúl Hernández/José Murado (ESP/Ford JWRC)+17:34.3
24. Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan (ESP/Toyota WRC2) +19:58.8
SPECIAL WINNERS
4 Esapekka Lappi (ES3, ES6, ES7, ES8)
3 Kalle Rovanperä (ES1, ES2, ES10)
Thierry Neuville (ES13, ES14, ES15)
1 Ott Tänak (ES9)
Adrien Fourmaux (ES11)
Elfyn Evans (ES12)
Takamoto Katsuta (ES4)
Georg Linnamäe (EST/Toyota, ES5)
MAIN LEAF
Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (FIN/Toyota) track exit ES4
Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (EST/Hyundai) track exit ES4
Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (JPN-IRL/Toyota) track exit ES10