Gryazin maintains WRC2 dominance but Pajari eyes greater glory

Gryazin, who drives a Citroën C3 Rally2, remained in control of the premier support category at the season’s final round, extended his lead to a commanding XXXsec on Saturday but Pajari was more than content to end the day in second, knowing that such a result will be enough to secure both the WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger titles.

The Finn, who is co-driven by Enni Mälkönen, was still fastest enough to post three fastest times as he reached the overnight halt 51.4sec clear of Hiroki Arai’s R5-specification Škoda Fabia.

“The day was quite nice, really consistent driving I would say,” Pajari said. “The car is working really fine, and I have been trying to take it nice and easy."

2008 Hungarian Grand Prix winner Heikki Kovalainen continued his impressive run to fourth place in his Toyota, although the Finn lost ground to the hard-charging Arai and completed the day 29.4sec behind.

Despite spinning his Škoda, Gus Greensmith climbed from seventh to fifth. He overtook Chris Ingram, who was sixth after reporting brake problems on his GR Yaris, as well Jan Solans.