Esapekka Lappi believes that he did some small steps forward during Rallye Monte Carlo despite the lack of pace and focuses on the bigger picture while he is aware of the details that can improve his performance for the next tarmac event.
The Finn driver did his debut with Hyundai and i20N Rally1 at Rallye Monte Carlo last weekend where he finished eighth overall. On Friday, he admitted that he did not have the pace to push as he was struggling to find confidence with his car, but he felt more comfortable the next two days as his mechanics made some changes to the set-up of his i20N. Furthermore, he suffered from a right rear puncture in Stage 12 resulting in dropping 35,4 seconds there.
His next event will be Rally Sweden and will enter in a national rally with the i20N Rally1 as a preparation for the second round of this year's championship.
"For sure, it was important mileage for us in the end", Lappi said.
"On Tarmac you need to be smart: you need to really make the car work to make the times better.
"It doesn't work if you force yourself or force the car, you end up just overheating the tyres and you will probably do a mistake, so you need to get the indication from the car on how you can drive faster.
"I think we were smart with that - we saw we were not on the pace, but we managed to slowly develop ourselves, and I think we managed to do some steps.
"We are now much better prepared for Croatia, the next tarmac event.
"There are just small details we need to work on to be as fast as we want to be".
Finally, he said in which areas of the car he wants to work on: "I would say the front and rear axle.
"The car doesn't feel bad at all - it's just that I can't be as fast as I would like to.
"It's about really small details that we need to change and try, to find the small bits in every corner – and this is the trickiest thing to find.
"The level is so high that you need to have a perfect run to be able to match the top times".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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