Pajari was in fourth place heading into the final day, but things started going wrong from the very beginning.
He clipped something on the opening stage of the morning, and the car sustained damage. On the second stage, Pajari lost over a minute.
In the end, he finished seventh overall, more than 10 minutes behind rally winner Sébastien Ogier of Toyota.
Pajari has repeatedly said he’s still on a learning journey in the top class of the World Rally Championship – but what did he ultimately take away from this weekend?
“Right now, I can’t give a very comprehensive answer to that,” Pajari admitted.
“In a way, it’s a relief that the rally is over. But there were definitely positives too – Friday might have even been too good,” he continued.
Pajari was fighting near the front on both Friday and Saturday. That, at the very least, gave him a boost in confidence.
“Of course. Friday and Saturday weren’t bad days, and overall the feeling was pretty good. I didn’t have to overdrive every corner – things started to flow more naturally,” Pajari reflected.
Would you say this experience ended up being a positive one, after all?
“If the journalist says so, then I guess it is,” Pajari grinned.
“It’s on the positive side now that we made it to the finish. The issue in the morning caused some grey hairs, but I managed to fix the car and drove smart enough not to cause any more damage. That’s part of the job, even if it didn’t feel great,” he added.
Rallying is also about teamwork – and Pajari felt he did his part reasonably well.
“I was roughly where I was supposed to be. We managed to take some points away from Hyundai,” Pajari pointed out.
The Finn also showcased his mechanical skills in Sardinia, fixing the car himself after the first stage on Sunday morning.
“The mechanics joked that I can do their job too. I can drive pretty well and take care of the mechanics’ tasks as well. Some of the crew might soon be out of a job,” Pajari laughed.
