Lappi is Early Leader in Sardinia
Hyundai's Esapekka Lappi leads Rally Italia Sardegna overnight after winning Thursday evening's super special stage in the suburbs of host city Olbia. In front of thousands of fans in the coastal city, Lappi quickly found his rhythm to edge M-Sport Ford man Ott Tänak by 0.2sec through the 3.20km curtain-raiser, which featured a thrilling blend of smooth asphalt roads combined with off-road tracks and jumps.
The Finn starts this sixth round in high spirits after podiums in Croatia and Portugal. Lappi's team-mate Thierry Neuville was only half a second off the pace, taking third overall by a mere 0.4sec from Toyota star Takamoto Katsuta. Championship leader Kalle Rovanperä and Sébastien Ogier - both driving GR Yaris cars - completed the top six. Just eight-tenths of a second blanketed Dani Sordo, Elfyn Evans and Pierre-Louis Loubet while early WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg rounded out the top 10.
2nd June, 2023