Esapekka Lappi and Kalle Rovanperä on the Friday of the Swedish World Rally Championship

Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm are the top contenders in Sweden. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS

Esapekka Lappi took advantage of his good starting position and consistently clocked good lap times on Friday in the Swedish World Rally Championship.

The Finnish driver, who currently competes for Hyundai, arrived at the night break in third place, only 11.2 seconds away from his teammate leading the race From Craig Breen. Lapland was also ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Estonian star Ott Tänak.

– This was a great day. I would like to drive a little harder and I could do that, but not everything is perfect with the car. It’s not bad by any means, but something should come up with more grip, Lappi summed up.

– We are trying to find more traction in the suspension. There aren’t really any other options. We can’t find more mechanical grip in the locks, so let’s try to come up with some magic for the suspension side, Lappi planned.

U-turn

In the opening race of the season in Monte Carlo, Lapland was far from the top. In the snow slopes around Umeå, the pace has been on a whole other level.

– Things are much better than in Monte. All in all, the day was good and we haven’t had any problems. We are still in the race and that is a nice thing.

Lapland has achieved one competition victory in its WC career, which came in 2017 in Finland. Now the person from Pieksämäkä has the means to fight for his second number one position and at least his first podium place in Hyundai’s sticks.

– Let’s try to stay involved in the battle, otherwise there is no point in this. Let’s see what we can do.

There was one mistake in Lapland’s day, when he made the crossing long at the special test in Sarsjöliden. An estimated seven seconds was wasted in this situation, so the top could have been even closer at the end of the day.

– I braked too late. At intersections it always felt like the bike gripped well under braking, but at that spot it didn’t grip at all during the last 40 meters. Then I had to make a decision, whether I’m going to turn or whether I’m going to take the plunge, Lappi said.

– It was certainly a reasonable decision to make a “hire”. There are quite a lot of intersections in this rally, and when you try to get to the braking spots precisely, sometimes it can happen like that.

Aura-Kalle

On Friday, with those who plowed the roads Kalle Rovanperä was a challenging task, especially on the last run of the day. The reigning world champion was not able to challenge the top, because those behind were able to drive in better conditions.

Rovanperä has not completely lost his game. He is fifth in the race, 31 seconds from the top.

– Tomorrow (Saturday) luckily we will be able to drive a little further back, and hopefully we will be able to race against drivers close to us. If you could grab a few places, but the gap to the top is too big, Rovanperä stated.

Rovanperä suffered from his starting position especially in the Brattby special stage, which was run twice. In the second run, Toyota’s Finnish star was no less than 21 seconds behind the standard time.

– It felt pretty shitty. It’s a hell of a ride to drive in such conditions. It’s just a struggle to even stay on the road, Rovanperä described.

There are seven special stages in the Swedish World Rally Championship on Saturday. On Sunday, the rally culminates in three special stages.