Rally1 debut exceeded all of Pajari’s expectations

The 22-year-old Finn was making his debut aboard a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 on his home FIA World Rally Championship round and delivered a mighty fourth-place finish with co-driver Enni Mälkönen alongside.

However, perhaps more impressive than Pajari’s overall result was the benchmark time he posted on Friday afternoon’s run of the Ruuhimäki test, only his ninth stage in the car. That, Pajari said, was never part of the plan.

“That was not the plan,” he told WRC.com. “I thought that the rally would be more easy in terms of the conditions, so I thought that I would be able to enjoy it maybe a little bit more. The conditions were just so tricky and there was so much learning, it was almost like testing for me during the rally. That was maybe the biggest surprise, but obviously it was not the plan to get any stage wins or to be maybe so close to the front guys."

Pajari’s first WRC stage win came just hours after he spun his GR Yaris twice, picking up rear-wing damage that had to be nursed through Friday’s morning loop.

“It was like a pure rollercoaster of emotions,” he continued. “Okay, it’s nice that it went that way – we started from a low and ended much, much higher. [The morning] was completely my mistake and at the end of the day it was quite a lucky escape and a good recovery on the following stages.”

Pajari’s short-term focus now switches back to fighting for the WRC2 title. He is second in the series, 28 points adrift of leader Oliver Solberg heading into next month’s EKO Acropolis Rally Greece (5 – 8 September).

“That’s the main goal for this season,” he said. “The championship fight is still on quite a good level for us. Of course, Oliver did a nice job here as well. It’s not going to be so easy, but that’s the way it should be.”