Esapekka Lappi attributed his retirement from Safari Rally Kenya to an 'exploding' gearbox as Hyundai endured another day to forget in Africa.
The Rally Sweden winner was forced to surrender second position when his i20 N ground to a halt in stage five with a transmission issue. The Finn cut a frustrated figure, admitting there was no warning of the imminent failure. His exit comes after suffering four propshaft failures during last year's visit to Kenya which triggered the team to fit a stronger version of the component ahead of the 2024 edition. 'The gearbox exploded,' said Lappi.
Esapekka's retirement is a reliability issue and we are not happy with that but we can't do much about that within the current rules, it is difficult to fix it. We will do what we can.' Esapekka Lappi, Janne Ferm, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport Lappi's exit did hand team-mate Ott Tanak second position but this was short-lived as the Estonian crashed out on stage six.
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