Pajari competed for the second time in Toyota’s Rally1 machinery in the WRC’s top class at Rally Chile last weekend. He delivered a flawless performance and secured a sixth-place finish.
Pajari got the chance to race in Chile after Toyota decided to bench their Japanese driver, Takamoto Katsuta, for one event. The Finn put in exactly the kind of performance expected of him in South America.
“I was not expecting to come here after Rally Greece was finished. It was really nice to come here, and it was a great opportunity. I’m super grateful to the team once again for making this possible,” Pajari said.
“I think there were still a lot of positives in this rally. We drove really cleanly through some really tricky conditions out there, but we also had some really good stage times, like on Friday. The pace was really, really nice. The other two days were more or less about learning and surviving.”
At the end of Friday, Pajari was impressively in fourth place, just 12.2 seconds off the lead. From Saturday onward, the conditions worsened with rain and fog reducing visibility.
Pajari kept his cool and finished the rally without issue. He ended up more than two and a half minutes behind his teammate Kalle Rovanperä, who claimed victory.
Pajari gave promising comments about his performance at the end of the rally.
“Of course, I would have liked to go a bit quicker, but in those tricky conditions, it would have been so easy to make a mistake. So I backed off a little bit.”
“I think the mileage is key for the moment. So maybe in the future, we can push a bit more,” Pajari added.
Pajari will compete in Toyota’s Rally1 car again at Central European Rally, which takes place in just under three weeks. In the season finale at Rally Japan, Pajari will drive Toyota’s Rally2 car as he aims for the WRC2 title.
