By alley - Oct 25, 2014, 6:45 AM ET

Lappi closes on European Rally title with win

Esapekka Lappi moved to the brink of the 2014 European Rally Championship title with a commanding Rally of Valais win. The Finn was untroubled in Switzerland once he had overcome his factory Skoda team-mate Sepp Wiegand on Friday, repeating his 2013 triumph on the event.

Lappi's third victory of the year should make wrapping up the title in next month's Corsica finale relatively straightforward.

Craig Breen recovered from a Thursday puncture to reach second place, his first podium since winning the Acropolis in March. He was kicking himself for a pair of spins in the middle of the final leg that delayed his pursuit of Kajetan Kajetanowicz, but he still overcome the Pole – who then retired anyway with a fire on his Ford.

That elevated Wiegand back to third place. He had drifted out of victory contention with a variety of issues, including a puncture, an errant tyre choice in the changeable wet, icy and muddy conditions, and some steering worries.

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Esapekka Lappi	Skoda Motorsport	Skoda	-
2	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Lotos Rally Team	Ford	51.6s
3	Craig Breen	Peugeot Rally Academy	Peugeot	53.8s
4	Sepp Wiegand	Skoda Auto Deutschland	Skoda	2m 14.2s
5	Robert Consani	Delta Rallye	Peugeot	2m 42.3s
6	Jonathan Hirschi	HRT Rally Team	Peugeot	3m 06.1s
7	Sebastien Carron	D-Max Swiss	Peugeot	3m 18.6s
8	Olivier Burri	D-Max Swiss	Ford	3m 19.7s
9	Jaromir Tarabus	Czech National Team	Skoda	4m 06.5s
10	Nicolas Althaus	Lugano Racing Team	Skoda	4m 22.1s