Gryazin dominates Friday as Pajari zeroes in on WRC2 prize

Gryazin, piloting a Citroën C3 Rally2 adorned in an eye-catching Initial D tribute livery, set the pace on all seven of Friday’s stages. His flawless performance saw him build an impressive lead of 1min 13.5sec over Pajari’s GR Yaris Rally2.

For Pajari and co-driver Enni Mälkönen, the day was all about strategy. The Finnish duo comfortably held second at the close of the opening leg, fully aware that such a result by Sunday afternoon would secure them both the WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger titles. Aside from a minor setback with a puncture late in SS2, Pajari enjoyed a clean run.

“Today was quite solid,” said a composed Pajari. “Okay, Nikolay is far ahead, but at the moment that is fine for us.”

Just over one minute further back but displaying impressive speed in an older car than his rivals was local driver Hiroki Arai. His Škoda Fabia R5 filled the final podium spot as well as completing the top 10 on the overall rally leaderboard.

Japanese rally champion Heikki Kovalainen was another standout performer. The ex-Formula 1 race winner ended the day in fourth, just 5.3sec behind Arai in his Toyota, but with Jan Solans lurking only 5.0sec adrift in an identical car.

British Rally Champion Chris Ingram rounded out the top six in his Castrol-liveried Toyota. With a gap of just 12.0sec to the podium, Ingram remains very much in contention for a top-three finish.

Seventh went the way of Gus Greensmith, who dropped almost 1min 30sec when he went off the road on SS3. Kajetan Kajetanowicz, meanwhile, overcame a similar moment on the same stage that crushed the exhaust of his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, ending the day in eighth.