Evans fastest on the Lappish stages as Lappi wins his career second Arctic Lapland Rally
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans completed the Arctic Lapland Rally route fastest with his Rally1 Yaris. Esapekka Lappi took overall honours, with tight battle for podium behind the WRC driver as Tuukka Kauppinen edged over Lauri Joona on the last stage.
61st edition of Arctic Lapland Rally has finished in the harsh arctic conditions as the temperatures dropped below close to negative 30 degrees. On the 220 special stage kilometers long route, the fastest driver was Toyota’s Elfyn Evans with the Rally1 Yaris. The British WRC star finished the event with an average speed of 126,2 kilometers per hour. However, as Evans was competing in Class 7, the British driver was ineligible for the competition of overall win leaving the fight for the traditional reindeer antlers to the highly competitive FRC1 category competitors.
Fight until the finish in FRC1
The FRC1 competition started off as fiercely as anticipated, with the top four drivers being within 20 seconds after Friday. The order for Saturday was Esapekka Lappi, Lauri Joona, Tuukka Kauppinen, and Mikko Heikkilä. Roope Korhonen, who started within the lead quartet, lost around 50 second after hitting a gate post and getting stuck in snowbanks on SS2.
Heikkilä was the quickest to wake up on Saturday, too well perhaps. Whilst being 3,2 seconds faster than anyone else on SS7, the Skoda driver picked up a false start and the resulting 10 second penalty. Lappi kept a steady lead throughout the day, and the fight for second place was between Joona and Kauppinen. Heikkilä took initiative by winning SS9, and elevated himself up to second place in SS10 as Lappi continued in the lead. Joona was trailing behind by 0,7 seconds with Kauppinen 1,9 second behind Joona.
On the Kemijärvi super special, Korhonen was the fastest man before Lappi. Heikkilä dropped down to fourth after stalling on the start line with Lappi first, Joona second, and Kauppinen third before the rally-ending Sarriojärvi. Diving into the dark forests of Sarriojärvi, Lappi did not hold back and won the stage convincingly. Tuukka Kauppinen pushed his Toyota Yaris to its limits, and the 19-year-old beat Joona for second place by 7,3 seconds. Heikkilä, whose issues with extra high beams had reoccurred, finished the event in fourth with Korhonen fifth.
“I’m especially happy for Enni, she has finally won this event. This is the best and most demanding national rally in Finland, and I enjoyed the challenge with many top tier drivers. The challenge also keeps me more interested, and pushed me to my limits”, Lappi smiled at the finish.
“We really tried, it was all or nothing. We had a lot of events on stage, and I can’t go faster than that. I feel great, we did what we set out to do here and it’s a good foundation to WRC Sweden. It was a fantastic event with truly arctic conditions”, Kauppinen said at the finish interview.
“We came as well as we could. Not sure of the finishing order yet, but overall it was a really enjoyable event with fantastic roads. We enjoyed the 100 % push in the cabin. Now we set our sights to WRC Sweden and then to finish off the FRC season in Riihimäki”, Joona stated at the finish.
“The last stage was quite okay considering that we did not have extra high beams in the darkness. Kristian (Temonen) said that we were on the edge a few times, but I really tried to push. Yesterday evening did not go as planned, but fortunately we know why, and for sure the issues with the lights had an effect. Also, I managed to mess up the start at Kemijärvi and to take a false start. We gave a lot of time away, but it’s sometimes how it is. Very good practice overall, we gained a lot of good kilometers for Sweden”, Heikkilä recapped.
“Obviously not the result we set out for, and if you compare to previous years, we weren’t quite there pace wise. I hope we’ll succeed again in Sweden. The car feels good, and I’m happy to go to Sweden”, Korhonen explained at the end of Sarriojärvi.
A strong non-native challenge behind the top 5
Behind the top 5 drivers, Toyota WRC Challenge Program’s Jaspar Vaher took home the better result in the battle between Estonia’s finest and finished sixth before the reigning FRC2 champion Patrick Enok. The Japanese drivers in the WRC Challenge Program, Takumi Matsushita and Shotaro Goto, finished eight and ninth respectively. Rounding up the top 10 was a 19-year-old Arctic Lapland Rally debutant Adrian Rzeznik, as the pole is bound for ERC later this year.
A full circle of drama in FRC2 as Hirvonen took honours in FRC3
In the FRC2 category for Rally3 cars, Saturday began under Japanese driver Rio Ogata’s command. Ogata led the rally up until SS8, when the young talent was forced to retire due to technical issues. Ogata’s teammate Kanta Yanaguida, who had led the rally momentarily on Friday before falling back due to technical issues as well, climbed from fourth position to second and took the lead from his fellow countryman. Yanaguida did not look back, and took the win before Pekka Keski-korsu and Jarkko Nikara rounding up a Renault Clio podium.
In the FRC3 category, the win belonged to Roope Hirvonen in the Ford Fiesta Rally4. The young Finn won eight out of the twelve stages of the weekend. Tuomas Huikuri finished second as Verneri Aallontie rounded up the podium after starting again on Saturday with Super Rally rules. Points leader before the Arctic Rally, Vili Hakala, had a weekend to forget with technical issues on both Friday and Saturday with a trip to snowbanks as well. Another young talent who spend an unfortunate amount of time in the snowbanks was Skoda Motorsport Finland’s driver programme’s Lauri Halonen, who retired on both days in the unforgiving conditions of the Lapland forests.
Nevalainen took the honours in FRC4
Friday ended with Aaron Holopainen in the lead by 12 second margin with Matias Nevalainen behind him. Holopainen’s Saturday began in the worst way possible, as the 17-year-old’s Toyota Auris’ clutch broke down before the first stage of the day. Nevalainen inherited the lead, and kept the margin steady to the second-place finished Miska Tuomisto who trailed Nevalainen by 52,5 seconds. Third in the category was Rasmus Pentti.
In the FRC5 category experienced Jarkko Hosike took the honours with his four-wheel-drive Toyota GR Yaris.
Results: 61st Arctic Lapland Rally
Overall
1. Elfyn Evans (GBR) 1:45:31,0
2. Esapekka Lappi +3:56,3
3. Tuukka Kauppinen +4:21,5
4. Lauri Joona +4:28,8
5. Mikko Heikkilä +4:32,7
FRC1
1. Esapekka Lappi 1:49:27,3
2. Tuukka Kauppinen +25,2
3. Lauri Joona +32,5
4. Mikko Heikkilä +36,4
5. Roope Korhonen +1:02,7
FRC2
1. Kanta Yanaguida (JPN) 2:00:16,2
2. Pekka Keski-Korsu +23,0
3. Jarkko Nikara +1:51,7
4. Tuomas Skantz +7:20,4
5. Markus Kolari +13:20,5
FRC3
1. Roope Hirvonen 2:08:03,6
2. Tuomas Huikuri +9:49,6
3. Verneri Aallontie +32:34,2
4. Hugo Arendi (EST) +42:55,5
FRC4
1.Matias Nevalainen 2:17:17,3
2. Miska Tuomisto +52,5
3. Rasmus Pentti +1:59,3
4. Asseri Lindroos +8:02,1
5. Eemil Piira +9:13,0
FRC5
1. Jarkko Hosike 2:17:46,4
Standings 2/7
Teams
1. KSL Experience 53p
2. RTE Motorsport 50p
3. Ouneva Oy 32p
4. TGS 29p
5. Printsport 22p
FRC1
1. Esapekka Lappi 50p
2. Lauri Joona 33p
3. Tuukka Kauppinen 18p
4. Benjamin Korhola 15p
5. Takumi Matsushita 14p
FRC2
1. Kanta Yanaguida (JPN) 43p
2. Pekka Keski-Korsu 33p
3. Rio Ogata (JPN) 25p
4. Tuomas Skantz 20p
5. Jarkko Nikara 15p
FRC3
1. Roope Hirvonen 43p
2. Tuomas Huikuri 28p
3. Verneri Aallontie 27p
4. Vili Hakala 25p
5. Sander-Erik Tiits 15p
FRC4
1. Miska Tuomisto 36p
2. Rasmus Pentti 27p
3. Matias Nevalainen 25p
4. Aaron Holopainen 25p
5. Nuutti Korhonen 16p
FRC5
1. Jarkko Hosike 25p
2. Juha Koljonen 25p
Photo: Taneli Niinimäki / AKK
