Pajari heads into the Acropolis Rally with confidence, fresh off an excellent performance in Rally Finland just before the summer break.
In Finland, Pajari had the opportunity to drive Toyota’s Rally1 car and impressed with a fantastic fourth-place finish overall. However, Greece presents a completely different challenge. It’s a much rougher and more technical rally compared to Finland.
“It’s definitely going to be a challenging race. The stages are in quite rough shape, but that’s always the case here. Especially this year,” Pajari said to RallyJournal.com on the eve of the competition.
Although Greece is currently experiencing hot weather, Pajari doesn’t have particularly warm memories of the Acropolis Rally from previous years.
“It’s always felt like something has gone wrong here. Hopefully this year will be better,” he predicted.
For Pajari, Greece plays a significant role in his WRC2 title fight. Oliver Solberg has dominated the WRC2 class, and only a victory will suffice for Pajari to keep his championship hopes, even theoretically, alive.
“I’ve already had a couple of wins and some good finishes otherwise. Sardinia was a similarly rough rally, and I managed to win there, so there’s really nothing else to aim for here but the win,” Pajari asserted.
Pajari’s strategy is clear.
“We’re going all out. Of course, there are some really tough spots where you can’t go flat out, as it’s easy to damage the car. But otherwise, I’ll try to push as hard as it feels right. You can’t try to avoid every rock,” Pajari reflected.
Pajari has driven well this season, even surprising himself.
“It would be great to fight for the championship all the way to the end. So far, things have gone pretty well, despite the relatively modest expectations at the start of the year. Overall, the season has gone really well, and I’ve managed to drive some really strong rallies. We’ll definitely push hard all the way to the finish,” the Finn planned.
Pajari’s strong performances have also attracted the attention of major teams. He’s been linked to a potential seat in Toyota’s Rally1 car for next season, with team principal Jari-Matti Latvala publicly acknowledging that Pajari is high on his list.
“I’ll probably be rallying next year as well. I’ve read some things in the papers, and there’s been a lot of speculation. If it were up to me, the answer would probably be quite clear, but I think those decisions depend on more than just me,” Pajari said with a smile.
Pajari has undoubtedly emerged as one of the so-called “hot names” this season.
“Of course, it’s great that people are talking about me. In a way, that’s been one of the goals. We must have done something right to have reached this position,” Pajari commented.
