11.7.2019. Test for Esapekka Lappi: The Finn starts on the next weekend (13./14. July) in the Citroën C3 WRC in the rally of Estonia. This is no run of the FIA world rally championship, the Citroën Total World Rally Team is using the Event as a dress rehearsal for the next world championship race: rally Finland.
Like all the other WRC team Citroën in the summer break, prepares for the second half of the season, particularly with a view to the next world championship race at the beginning of August in Finland. A crucial factor here: The average speed at the rally through the forests in and around the Finnish city of Jyväskylä is 30 km/h higher than at the last world championship race in Sardinia. The number of jumps tenfold even. To be on these terms and conditions as well as possible prepared, the Finnish Duo Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm rally Estonia as a test use on similar high-speed tracks.
“We have two goals,” says Pierre Budar, team principal of Citroën Racing. “We want to bring Esapekka in the best possible shape, he can drive a few extra miles in the C3 WRC under similar conditions as in August. Secondly, we can collect in the very different sections of more experience than in the ordinary test drives.“ Already in 2012, and in 2018, the team took advantage of the Start in the Baltic States to prepare for Finland. With Success! In the past year, the Citroën Total World rally Team for the fastest world championship race in the calendar reached a hard-fought second place.
For Lappi and Ferm will be the test run is a milestone: 100 rallies have spent the Finns together in the Cockpit. In the case of the WRC-partner event, the Duo encounters many world Cup competitors – every registered manufacturer in Estonia with at least one World Rally Car. Lappi is looking forward to the Event with 15 special stages over a total of 151,98 km: “I can still remember the cheers of the Fans during my first and only Start in Estonia.” The Citroën driver, 2014 on the fifth place.
The real target, he does not loose sight of: the preparation for the upcoming world championship race in his home country. “The rally Finland means to me, of course, very much. The Start-up in Estonia gives me the Chance to go with my home well prepared at the Start,“ said Lappi. “There, the time distances are always so low that you must attack from the beginning.”
Esapekka Lappi (Photo: Citroën)
