Esapekka is talking about his roll in Stage 21 of Rally Finland and what he did afterwards to continue his race and to get to the finish line of his home event.
The Toyota driver ran wide on a left-hander and his Yaris dug into a rut in Stage 21 resulting in rolling three times and dropping 20,5 seconds in that stage. From this incident, the windscreen was cracked, the roof was missing and there was water pouring from the radiator.
After SS21, all the crews had to head to the regroup zone for tyre changing before the start of the final stage of the race. As the radiator of Lappi's Yaris was leaking, he and Janne Ferm stopped on the road section and managed to repair it before heading to the regroup zone.
In fact, the crew put water from a lake to the radiator to be able to leave from the stage end and to start in Powerstage after the regroup zone.
But the most noteworthy thing is that they wore goggles in PS, because they put off the windscreen, and they managed to finish in the lowest place of the podium in their home event despite the fact that the roof was missing resulting in lacking aerodynamics.
"I was lucky we managed to survive and fix everything", Lappi said.
"For sure this one of the strangest podiums ever.
"First of all the roll was a big surprise for me as the corner where it happened I know it very well.
"I checked on the first pass that there is space on the outside to go a bit wide and now there was a huge rut which stopped the car and starting rolling immediately.
"I was ready to stop but then Janne told me to start the engine.
"I thought maybe I will try but the windscreen was fully f*****, so I thought I would have no chance.
"Then we went to the finish and there was power steering oil on the windscreen and a lot of smoke, so I knew for sure something is wrong.
"We managed to fix every problem after the stage.
"We got some bottles from stage end for drinking but for sure we didn’t drink them.
"But that is the benefit of this rally being known previously as the 1000 Lakes - you can stop at a lake for water.
"I filled all the bottles and my camel bag as well to make sure we had enough water.
"Then we started the last stage and we lost the roof completely on the first acceleration and then there was some air inside of the car.
"Janne needed to shout the pace notes because there was so much sound from the airflow.
"It was quite a story.
"It was pretty much okay with the goggles on, there wasn’t too many flies luckily.
"When I saw there were ruts I backed off to make sure no rocks bounced into my face".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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