Productive work for Citroën at the Estonian Rally

Esapekka Lappi participated last week in the Rally of Estonia against several opponents encountered in WRC, Including Ott Tänak (Toyota), Andreas Mikkelsen, Craig Breen (Hyundai) ou encore Elfyn Evans (Ford). Le Finlandais a finalement pris la 3e place derrière l’imbattable Estonien et le Norvégien après avoir été victime d’un décoincement de pneu suite à la réception d’une bosse dans l’ES13.

“It was a very nice rally, well organized and excellent preparation for Finland, comments Esapekka Lappi who was competing in this event for the second time. The stages are certainly a little faster than at home, and the surface is softer too, but this allowed me to rediscover the sensations and landmarks specific to very high-speed terrain. I felt confident behind the wheel, and we now have a good base of settings that we will continue to refine next week in tests. »

Citroën's main objective was nevertheless accomplished. The Reds were able to fine-tune the settings of the C3 WRC in preparation for the Rally Finland scheduled for early August. The engineers therefore studied different technical options in terms of geometry, shock absorbers and differentials.

“We couldn't make a mistake with our objective this weekend: we could undoubtedly have fought for 2nd place by adopting the optimal settings each time, but that was not our primary concern, specifies the director of Citroën Racing Pierre Budar. Instead, we accumulated kilometers and made set-up changes at each service on the C3 WRC and this participation proved particularly instructive. We will now try to further build on these achievements from here to Finland. »

Discover the report of the Estonian Rally in issue 2225 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.