ERC – Esapekka Lappi, roaring 40th

Intermediate points make champions. The phrase of Enzo Ferrari, creator of Team, can once again be applied. With a modest 5th place in Estonia, Esapekka Lappi finished more than 2′ behind the winner Ott Tänak, but took the opportunity to widen the gap again in the championship. The Skoda Finn is now 40 points ahead of his teammate Sepp Wiegand and 48 over Craig Breen, resident of Peugeot . A comfortable gap before the next round of theERC at Barum in the Czech Republic at the end of August. Lappi admits, however, that he did not take any unnecessary risks in Estonia.

“To face the 'local heroes', we would have had to take even more risks in difficult conditions. At the end of the 10th special, for example, it was raining so much that we couldn't see anything! Looking at the overall championship standings, it was best not to take unnecessary risks, says Lappi. The positive thing is that we extended our lead in the championship before the rally at home of Skoda. »

The Czech firm will indeed play at home from August 29 to 31 for Barum. Skoda had prepared for the event by fielding its Fabia S2000s in the colors of the brand's former glories during the Bohemia Rally two weeks ago, which also marked the first official release of a Fabia prototype with a 15 l engine, which will equip the future Fabia R1,6, entered in 5.

Find the report of the Estonian Rally in the 1970 issue of AUTOhebdo, already available in digital version, and on newsstands from Wednesday.