On a day Sami Pajari claimed his first World Rally Championship stage win at just the ninth attempt, it was his attitude when recovering from a difficult Friday morning loop that impressed his Toyota bosses most instead.
Making a one-off (for now) step up from WRC2, Pajari and co-driver Enni Mälkonen are currently sixth overall after 10 of Secto Rally Finland’s 20 stages.
Caught out on Friday’s opener, Pajari spun his GR Yaris Rally1 and later on the same stage ran wide and lost his rear wing – costing him loads of time on the remaining four stages of the loop before it could be fixed in service.
But once his Toyota was fully operational, the 22-year-old was on the money with the second-fastest time on the same Laukaa test that ruined his morning. He saved the best for Ruuhimäki 2, where he won the stage by half a second over Sébastien Ogier.
It drew an overjoyed reaction from Pajari at the stage-end, who later told DirtFish that it was a “big relief” to notch his first WRC scratch time.
“I think Finns are not so good in emotions or describing the emotions,” Pajari said. “I think it’s not so easy to say.
“For the moment, of course, there is a big relief. Just really, really nice feeling in general. So for the moment, I would like not to think too much about the morning, but I think that also makes a nice story that I kind of never give up.
“So just keep refocusing, keep pushing.”
That attitude is what really caught the eye of Toyota sporting director Kaj Lindström, who is acting as team principal in Finland with Jari-Matti Latvala competing in WRC2.
Asked if he expected that stage win from Pajari, Lindström said it was a “cherry on the cake” of a “rollercoaster” day where the young Finn showed his professionalism.
“Well, it was nice, it was positive,” Lindström told DirtFish.
“It was the ninth stage for him in Rally1 car and the fastest stage time, so for sure it was good. And I think that was a cherry on the cake on this rollercoaster today.
“A difficult start in the morning, but then he, in a way, showed that he’s a professional and mature enough to handle the situation and bring the car back in service, not doing anything more silly, and then we fixed it and he went out again.
“After the stage, I called to the car and just said that obviously some important parts are missing, so just don’t do anything silly. Forget it; it happened and just bring the car home safely and we’ll fix it,” he added.
Pajari concluded: “The morning was obviously bad, it’s fair to say, so then the afternoon was even better than I think anyone was expecting, so then the balance is maybe somewhere where it should be or where I would like it to be.
“I don’t know what was the plan, because maybe the plan was not to go into the ditch, but it was either that or to take the stage win!”
