Sami Pajari is the form driver in the World Rally Championship right now.
Back-to-back victories at Rally Estonia and Finland have closed the gap to championship leader Elfyn Evans down to 30 points.
Talk of him being a title contender won’t change how he approaches Rally del Paraguay this week, or any subsequent events, however.
“Of course, it’s nice to be in the mix,” Pajari told DirtFish. “Once again I will do the best I can when we go to Paraguay and all the rest of the races.
“For me, the fact that we are in a way fighting for the World championship title is not really changing anything. It’s always that I do the best job I can and it doesn’t really matter where I am doing it or what race it is.”
Evans has close to a one-rally lead on the chasing pack but is wary of the effect of running first on the road – which is certain in Paraguay and very likely for Chile given his current points lead.
Evans has the points advantage, but the disadvantage of running first on the road
Asked if he could ‘manage’ his points lead over Pajari for the remaining four rounds, Evans replied: “I don’t think so.
“The reality is that you’re on gravel to begin with and we’ve seen when the road cleaning is at its worst that you’re at the back, aren’t you? That’s the reality, it doesn’t matter what you do in some of the rallies.
“For me, it’s just going to be a case of going to the rally like I was going into Portugal and just continue to do the best until the end.”
Takamoto Katsuta, who briefly lead the championship standings after Croatia Rally in April, is now 41 points adrift of the top spot, following a double puncture which forced him to retire from Estonia’s opening leg, and then a misted windscreen costing him two minutes in Finland.
But the two-time WRC rally winner has not given up the chase in the title race despite the extended points gap.
“Elfyn did a really good job, and also Sami did a good job, so now we are third in the championship,” said Katsuta.
“At the same time, it’s still a long season. It’s quite far to Elfyn of course, but we have still three or four rallies, which is also all gravel rallies. So I think still there is a chance always. Anything can happen in rally, so just keep pushing, keep trying and see what I can do.”
A total of 140 points remain available for each driver to score during the rest of the 2026 season. Oliver Solberg is 45 points behind Evans in fourth overall; Sébastien Ogier is 62 points behind and committed to all remaining WRC rounds.
Adrien Fourmaux is the best-placed Hyundai driver in the championship, 72 points behind Evans.
