The two-time World Rally Championship round winner is taking a break from competing in the WRC and the Finnish Rally Championship
Esapekka Lappi is hanging up his helmet for the time being: The Finnish WRC works driver has announced that he is ending his professional rallying career until further notice.
The 35-year-old, who has celebrated two WRC victories and a total of 15 podium finishes during his career, announced this decision at a press conference organised by Škoda Finland. The occasion was the upcoming season finale of the Finnish Championship, the Porvoon Autopalvelu Ralli, in which Lappi himself will be competing.
Whilst he did not completely rule out the odd start in the future, life as a professional driver is, for now, a thing of the past.
“I’m not saying never again, because I’ve said that too often already. But for the moment, I’m drawing a line under it,” explained Lappi. “For now, I’m taking a break until I decide otherwise. As things stand, there are no plans to continue in the Finnish Championship or in any other racing series.”
Lappi made his WRC debut in 2011 at Rally Finland behind the wheel of a Citroën C2 R2 Max. He made his breakthrough in 2016 when he clinched the WRC2 title in his second full season for Škoda Motorsport.
Competitions with a wide range of manufacturers
His promotion to the top flight came in 2017 with Toyota, the year the Japanese manufacturer made its WRC comeback. In his very first season, he celebrated an emotional home victory in Finland – one of two World Championship wins in his career.
After three podium finishes and fifth place overall in the 2018 season, Lappi moved to Citroën for 2019 to partner Sébastien Ogier. The year with the French team proved difficult, but still yielded three second-place finishes.
This was followed by a one-year stint with M-Sport-Ford in the 2020 season, which was shortened by COVID-19, before Lappi temporarily returned to WRC2 in 2021. In 2022, he finally returned to Toyota, where he competed in a part-time programme.
For 2023, Hyundai secured the Finn’s services for a full-time seat. The highlight of the partnership was his victory at Rally Sweden. Most recently, Lappi shared a seat with the Korean team in 2024 and again this year, competing in five rounds in the third i20 N Rally1.
“This is an extremely important decision. To be honest, my knees are shaking a little now that I’ve said it out loud,” admits Lappi, who only secured the Finnish championship title in 2025 and 2026 alongside co-driver Enni Malkonen.
“This sport means an incredible amount to me and has given me so much. On the other hand, it has taken a lot out of my family, but it has also provided us with financial security.”
Lappi adds: “Rally driving gives you that adrenaline and endorphin rush when you’re pushing the limits and everything goes to plan. It’s like a drug. I don’t yet know where I’ll get that rush from in future. Real drugs are out of the question, of course, so I’ll have to come up with something else. What worries me most is the question of where I’ll get these emotions from in future.”
However, the name Lappi won’t disappear from rallying entirely: he will continue to support the young Finnish driver Lauri Halonen as a mentor; Halonen is part of the Skoda Motorsport Finland development programme.
