Esapekka Lappi believes that he will face two challenges at Rally Croatia and caught by surprise by the extra power of hybrid unit after the end of his tarmac test for the third round of this year's World Rally Championship.
The Finn driver will start sixth on Friday tarmac stages meaning that he will find dirty the road from the front-runner drivers.
In fact, it must be mentioned that Lappi was absent from World Rally Championship of 2021 which means that he has no experience of the tarmac roads of Croatia in comparison with the majority of his rivals who competed there last year.
"Maybe first time ever in this sport that I don’t need to ask more power", Lappi said.
"I am pretty satisfied with what we have.
"On this surface you really understand how much extra power you have with the hybrid boost and how impressive the acceleration actually is.
"It’s like a huge kick coming.
"On the wide road it’s fine, on the small road sometimes too much, at least at the beginning of the test day.
"There are two big challenges.
"The first one is the lack of experience from this rally.
"It always helps when you have done the stages once or twice.
"Probably the bigger monkey on my shoulder is the dirt on the road.
"It has never been my favourite surface and in the past I have done some mistakes on this surface.
"I want to turn the page.
"I want to be better on this and I want to perform well to be in the fight.
"We need to forget what happened in Sweden.
"I need to take the self-confidence from there but on the other hand I need to understand that although Sweden was a new rally for everyone, the conditions were something that I know and am good at.
"Now we are competing on the other side.
"I cannot probably set as high a target as I had in Sweden, but still I want to give a chance to myself to perform that well.
"I don’t want to give up already before the start".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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