Pajari made his debut in Toyota’s Rally1 car at Rally Finland last summer. He immediately caught attention by setting a fastest stage time and eventually finished fourth overall. Later in the season, he received two more opportunities in Chile and Central Europe.
This year, the Finnish driver is contesting a full season behind the wheel of the Rally1-spec Toyota. He has repeatedly stated that he’s still in a learning phase, but his pace should gradually improve as the year goes on.
At last week’s Rally Portugal, Pajari delivered a solid performance. While he wasn’t challenging the front-runners, he was able to outperform his more experienced team-mate and current championship leader, Elfyn Evans. On the final day, however, Pajari eased off the pace and handed sixth place back to Evans.
Nonetheless, his overall showing did not go unnoticed.
“It was actually quite nice to compare with Elfyn, because there’s always this talk going on about starting positions. When we were starting back to back on the stages, conditions were more or less the same. So it was nice to see that we can have the same speed sometimes as him,” Pajari said.
Pajari now has eight WRC starts under his belt in the top category. After Rally Portugal, he was asked whether he feels like he belongs among the elite drivers in the Rally1 field.
“I really hope that I belong here. Some of the times have been quite okay, so why would I think that this is the wrong place for me? There have already been some nice rallies, some nice results, some nice stages,” Pajari replied.
“It’s quite obvious that rally by rally we are getting much more confident – and that’s exactly what these cars need. For me, this is clearly the kind of car where you really need to be on it all the time. If you hesitate even a little, you’re instantly way behind. The competition here is really tough,” the Finnish driver summed up.
