Esapekka Lappi


Esapekka Lappi is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 Finnish Rally Champion, 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion. He is currently competing for M-Sport Ford WRT in the World Rally Championship.

Career

2012

Lappi won the 2012 Finnish Rally Championship with Ford Fiesta S2000 winning all the 7 rounds of the championship with his co-driver Janne Ferm.
In October, Lappi was signed by Škoda Motorsport. Lappi won his first rally with the team in 2012 Rally Poland which was part of European Rally Championship, driving a Škoda Fabia S2000.

Škoda Motorsport (2013–2016)

In 2013, Lappi competed full season in Asia-Pacific Rally Championship with Team MRF's Škoda Fabia S2000, and selected events in both WRC-2 and ERC with Škoda Motorsport. In APRC, Lappi won three out of six events and finished the season runner-up to his team-mate Gaurav Gill.
In ERC, Lappi competed in three tarmac rallies, winning the last of them Rallye International du Valais in Switzerland. He finished the season fifth in the final standings.
In WRC-2, he also raced in three rallies, winning Rally de Portugal where he also scored his maiden WRC-point finishing 10th overall.
Lappi won the 2014 European Rally Championship title with victories in Latvia, Northern Ireland and Switzerland.
Lappi continued competing with Škoda Motorsport driving their new challenger Fabia R5 in WRC-2 championship. He scored two wins in Poland and Finland on his way to finish the season in third place behind Nasser Al-Attiyah and Yuriy Protasov. Lappi also scored his career-best WRC result finishing eighth in Rally Finland.
He won the 2016 World Rally Championship-2 with the Škoda Fabia R5 after winning in Finland, Germany, Wales and Australia.

Toyota (2017–2018)

Lappi was signed by Toyota Gazoo Racing to drive a Toyota Yaris WRC in the 2017 World Rally Championship.
On his second event with the team, the 2017 Rally d'Italia, he won his first ever stage in the WRC, along with five more stage wins. He eventually finished fourth. In just his fourth World Rally Car start, at his home event of Rally Finland, Lappi took his first WRC victory. In October 2018, Toyota announced that Lappi would leave the team at the end of the 2018 championship.

Citroën (2019)

He joined Citroën for the 2019 season, partnering with multiple champion Sébastien Ogier. With the Citroën C3 WRC, Lappi finished the season in tenth place after a difficult year with many retirements. He scored three podiums for the French team, by finishing second in Sweden, Finland and Turkey. After the season, Citroën announced they would depart from the World Rally Championship in 2020 after Ogier moved to Lappi's old team, Toyota, leaving Lappi to find a seat elsewhere.

M-Sport (2020)

After Citroën's exit in 2019, Lappi signed for M-Sport to drive the whole season in a Ford Fiesta WRC alongside his compatriot Teemu Suninen.

WRC victories

Career results

WRC results

* Season still in progress.

SWRC results

WRC-2 results

ERC results

APRC results

Personal life

Lappi is gluten intolerant. The Citroën service park chef prepares gluten-free dishes for him. One of his sponsors is Moilas, a Finnish producer of gluten-free foods.