Ahead of Sunday’s final four stages, Pajari holds sixth place overall. On Saturday, he managed to finish twice within the top five on individual stage times. For the young driver from Lahti, this rally is all about learning, with no specific results-based goals. The primary aim is to gather as much experience as possible in his third outing with the Rally1 car.
“I’m feeling pretty good about the day. Once again, it was a bit different. I had hoped for better conditions, but that’s also part of learning. At times, I got to push really hard. Got to drive very seriously,” Pajari said.
“The learning process is going well. I think there were some good stage times, and on some sections, we were even among the fastest. Of course, there are certain places where we’re losing time. We’re trying to learn from those.”
Throughout the rally, Pajari has emphasised that on clean tarmac, his pace is already close to the leaders. However, on dirty and wet tarmac, he still has to play it safe.
“I have some ideas about where we could find more speed, and the team is really good at helping with what’s worth trying. It’s definitely not a hopeless situation,” Pajari summarised.
“It’s been great to have the pace, but also to know where there’s room for improvement. If I felt like there was no way to go faster, that would be a worse situation.”
On Sunday, Pajari plans to approach the day just like the previous three.
“I expect it’ll be quite similar to today. The stages are similar, and so is the weather. It’s going to be a full rally day, and with the battle going on at the front, it’ll be fast for sure.”
