Esapekka Lappi is impessed by how fast is Toyota Yaris WRC during his tests in Finland and he is being realistic about his chances to win this year's Rally Finland.
The Finn driver stayed outside WRC this season, because he could not find a WRC seat, therefore he did two outings in 2021 having driven a Volkwagen Polo GTI R5 at Arctic Rally Finland and at Rally Portugal.
Moreover, EP started his WRC career with Toyota back in 2017 at Rally Portugal and after three events from that event he won his home event with the Yaris WRC.
Next week's Rally Finland will be the first event for Lappi after a 10-month absent from the main category of WRC and from driving a WRCar.
"It was a small shock", Lappi said.
"It’s so bloody fast!
"When you have been driving an R5 car and not in one of these things for a while, it takes some time – it’s so impressive!
"We will do some work with the car.
"And we stay later to do some running with the lights in the dark this evening.
"But today is really for the head and getting the head used to the car and the speed.
"You need to be quite crazy, after such a long break it feels quite crazy to go flat over a crest and then slow the car for the corner after that.
"Everything is simple with the car, it’s just the brain that is saying: ‘No, you cannot do that!’
"That’s the problem or the challenge I will face during the race to understand the pace.
"In the test road, I can do well, but to move that pace to the first pass of the first stages is not that simple".
Finally, he answered when he was asked what he thought might be realistic: "It’s just not realistic in real life that I can come back after 10 months to fight for the win.
"It’s just not possible.
"I got a clue for this in the test when we changed a section of the test road, and then in this fresh section, the first pass was not enough – I was still hesitating in a few places and you cannot do that if you want to win".
Source: DirtFish.com
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