The mentality shift key to Lappi’s shot at WRC redemption

He appeared poised to become the World Rally Championship’s new bright young star five years ago, but Esapekka Lappi's fortunes since his 2017 breakthrough win offer a cautionary tale of how the tables can turn. Now having rebuilt his career, the Finn is determined to make the most of his second shot at the big time with Toyota

Tom Howard Feb 23, 2022, 9:24 AM

Upd: Feb 23, 2022, 1:45 PM

Rewind to July 2017 and the World Rally Championship seemingly had crowned a new young star in Esapekka Lappi. The Finn had claimed a record-breaking victory at Rally Finland, in only his fourth career start.

Then the reigning WRC2 champion, Lappi had set tongues wagging by claiming his first stage wins on only his second event of a partial campaign for Toyota in Italy. Then, following a retirement in Poland, he sensationally swept to victory in Finland - winning nine stages along the way. In doing so, he set a record that remains intact today for the fewest WRC starts prior to a maiden win.

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.