This year, Pajari received a major opportunity as he was promoted to drive a full season in the WRC’s top category with Toyota’s Rally1 car.
He showed glimpses of serious pace at last year’s Rally Finland, and expectations are once again high. With speculation already swirling about his future, Pajari is now in need of a strong result.
And at least the start was promising. Pajari clocked the fastest time on his very first run in the Ruuhimäki shakedown stage. He eventually finished eighth in the final shakedown standings, but that opening run offered hope of improved speed.
“Feeling pretty good. I had a really good feeling already on that first run in the shakedown. The time on the first run was really nice – that one is always the closest to the rally. It felt good. This is the first time I’m doing a rally where I already have experience with the Rally1 car from last year. That definitely helps. This is a very familiar rally for me, but at the same time, it’s also a really challenging one,” Pajari told RallyJournal.com.
Pajari’s body language before the rally was more relaxed than in previous events. He seems to have more confidence in himself now than earlier in the season.
“At least I’m feeling really good. I’m relaxed. In a couple of earlier rallies, we had some unfortunate technical issues that really cast a shadow over those events. In almost every rally this season there have been some good stages. Now with more experience, I feel like I can go at it more boldly. But still, I’ll try to drive based on my own feeling,” Pajari said.
Until now, Pajari had avoided stating any clear result targets this season, but on the eve of Rally Finland, he made an exception. When asked about his goal, the answer came immediately – without hesitation.
“Last year I finished fourth here. That would be a good result. I’d rather not take anything less – and would happily take more.”
Pajari received widespread praise last year when he impressed on the high-speed Finnish roads in a Rally1 car for the first time. That experience is bound to help this year as well.
“It definitely helps. There are lots of places where a Rally1 car behaves differently than smaller cars. Once you’ve driven it, there’s some muscle memory about how to approach those places. That helps a lot. They’re not major things, but when the gaps are small, the small things matter,” he explained.
This year’s unique feature at Rally Finland is that Sunday consists entirely of the legendary Ouninpohja stage. The over 30-kilometre test will be driven twice and serves as the Power Stage.
“A really cool day. A bit of an odd solution, even if the total kilometres are a lot. It’s one single stage for the whole day. If it comes down to fighting for seconds, that could get pretty intense,” Pajari said.
Another topic of debate is once again the virtual chicanes – an artificial solution that continues to draw criticism from drivers.
“It’s a bit questionable. It divides opinion. From what I saw in the shakedown data, you could easily lose a second depending on whether you brake at the start or end of the zone. It takes skill to get it right. There’s no magic to it, but it’s a bit strange. I’d probably prefer a normal chicane,” Pajari admitted.
