Esapekka Lappi made a dream return to the World Rally Championship by claiming victory in WRC2 on Sunday at Arctic Rally Finland Powered by CapitalBox. After claiming eight of out 10 stage wins in a Movisport-prepared Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, a safe approach to Sunday’s closing stages saw the home hero take victory by 47.7sec from Mikkelsen. Nevertheless, a stage win plus consistent pace were positives to take from the winter event. The youngster’s result was marred by an off into a snowbank on Saturday which cost around 40sec, but he recovered to finish 42.6sec behind Mikkelsen in third. Toksport’s super-sub soon settled into his Fabia machine and eventually finished 1min 14.6sec back from Gryazin.

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