Pajari is currently in seventh place after two days of competition, with just three stages left to run. Among the Rally1 drivers, he’s only ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville – who had two incidents on Friday – and Ford’s Josh McErlean.
The Finn is over four minutes behind rally leader Sebastien Ogier. As expected, this season-opening event has proven to be a tough challenge.
On Saturday, Pajari managed to find some decent pace at times, but he hasn’t been able to match the frontrunners at any point.
“An interesting day. The speed was already better. Certain stages and sections were really good,” Pajari reflected.
“Some of the stages went very well, so that leaves a good feeling. We didn’t change our plan or take any special approach to any particular stage. We’ve just been running at our own pace, at a level that feels good. When the feeling is better, the times improve. It’s all about gradually developing,” he added.
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala commented on Friday that Pajari’s approach has been overly cautious at times. Pajari agrees, but doesn’t see it as a negative.
“That’s been the intention. Even though yesterday it felt to me like we were going really slow, we just have to rack up those learning kilometers. The direction today was clearly upwards,” Pajari explained.
On Sunday, Pajari will tackle the legendary Col de Turini climb in a Rally1 car for the first time. He’s looking forward to the experience, though the conditions for the Power Stage could be quite harsh.
“It’s a pretty amazing stage in itself. Based on what I’ve heard, it’s supposed to rain overnight. In some spots it might come down as snow, in others as rain. Tomorrow could be a very interesting set of three stages,” Pajari anticipated.
“The first two stages were run on Thursday evening. I expect they’ll be quite muddy. I’ve always driven Turini in dry conditions, but now they’re forecasting snow,” he said.
