[Video] The luckiest escape of WRC 2019 | GRR
To call something a ‘lucky escape’ you really need to be talking about something that was truly the verge of disaster. Well, let us present Esepekka Lappi’s luckiest escape of all.
The time is February, the place is Sweden. To be more precise the area around Torsby that hosts the World Rally Championship’s snowiest event – the 67th Rally Sweden. The Finnish Citroën driver is on his way to what turned out to be a far more than respectable second place finish.
However on his way to that podium reception Lappi, who endured a difficult campaign, ending in Citroën’s recent decision to pull out of rallying altogether, used all the luck he had during this absolute monster of a moment.
Rounding a slight right bend on the fifth stage, Hof-Finnskog, Lappi’s C3 slides rather dangerously into the waiting snowbank which, rather than bouncing him back into the stage, sucks the unsuspecting Finn in, tossing his Citroën around and into the air.
Miraculously, rather than proceeding to roll off into the distance, the C3 actually catches the snow bank again, which this time cushions the roll, before flinging the Citroën back onto the stage. Lappi then continues on as if nothing happened.
Most of us would probably have gotten out and walked off, vowing never to get in a WRC car again, but rally drivers are a different breed.