On their first ever competing in Mexico, Esapekka Lappi and co-driver Janne Ferm, finished just shy off the drivers championship points, after showing some good pace during the weekend.
March 10, 2018
After some good stages on the opening day, they went off the road in the afternoon, and got stuck. The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team had the car ready again on Saturday morning, and the two Finns continued with good times for the morning loop. In the afternoon, they got slowed down with a seta-belt issue and also a puncture. In the end they finished 11th O/A.
– It has been a tough weekend for us. The highlight has actually been the spectator stages. In our pre-event test we did some work on a go-kart track and we managed to find some new things which seem to have worked, I almost did the fastest time on the street stage. Previously we had been losing a lot of time in those. We also gained a lot of experience and data, which we can use to improve next year. The mechanics did a good job to fix the car Friday night, so a big thank you to them. I was able to enjoy the driving on Saturday morning and the times were better. We were delayed after service because my seatbelt was stuck underneath a box that the TV crews had moved, so I had to wait half an hour for them to come and fix it. Once we got going we had some good splits before we got a puncture, and then on the next one I thought I had another puncture, but the time was actually quite decent.