After 12 special stages, Pajari is third in the Rally2 class. He moved ahead of British driver Gus Greensmith, who suffered a puncture, during Saturday morning’s loop. Pajari is now 20.5 seconds ahead of Greensmith.
Citroën’s Yohan Rossel, who is second in the class, also suffered a puncture, bringing Pajari within just 5.2 seconds of the Frenchman. Pajari is still a little over a minute behind the class leader, Nikolay Gryazin.
“We chose a safer tire selection because we were expecting rain. We mixed in some soft tires, and when, for example, the second stage was dry, I had to drive smartly to avoid wearing out the softs completely. It was a predictable time loss,” Pajari explained about his modest time in the morning’s second special stage.
On the following stage, however, Pajari set the first class-fastest time of the race. His driving on Croatian tarmac has gradually improved.
“We made some minor changes to the car, but I’m not sure if that increased our speed. Probably, driving just started to click better and I gained confidence. Now, the tire choices were pretty much the same for everyone, unlike yesterday. That surely had an impact,” Pajari thought.
“If we don’t count one situation yesterday where there was room to go wide, it has been consistent driving, which feels good. There hasn’t been any need for impossible squeezing.”
Pajari’s goal for the last eight special stages of the race is, of course, to maintain his podium position. Regrettably, the Finn is not competing for series points in Croatia, but a podium finish would still be a great achievement in such a competitive class.
“It looks quite good in terms of results. However, it’s more important that our performance is continuously improving and we are achieving good times. Particularly, I’m very satisfied with this morning,” Pajari summarized.
“It doesn’t really bother me that we’re not competing for points. Of course, it would look good in that respect if I had chosen this as a points rally. It may be even harder to reach the podium in Portugal. Still, we’ll try to perform well there too.”
Rally2 class standings after SS12/20:
| POS | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nikolay Gryazin | Citroen | 1:43:00.9 |
| 2. | Yohan Rossel | Citroen | +59.9 |
| 3. | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +1:05.1 |
| 4. | Gus Greensmith | Skoda | +1:25.6 |
| 5. | Pepe Lopez | Skoda | +2:21.9 |
| 6. | Nicolas Ciamin | Hyundai | +2:40.3 |
| 7. | Lauri Joona | Skoda | +3:22.3 |
| 8. | Eyvind Brynildsen | Skoda | +3:29.5 |
| 9. | Georg Linnamäe | Toyota | +4:44.0 |
| 10. | Emil Lindholm | Hyundai | +5:01.1 |
