Consistency key to Pajari’s Junior C’ship success

ESTONIA: FIA Junior WRC championship leader Sami Pajari is favouring consistency across the season over outright pace on individual rallies.

Pajari wrote himself into the Junior WRC history books at Rally Estonia last month by taking his maiden win. He chalked up six consecutive stage wins on the second day alone and eventually ended 24.1sec clear of the field ater measuring his pace over the closing stages.

The victory vaulted him to a four-point lead at the top of the standings, but the youngster was quick to point out the importance of maintaining consistency with just two rallies remaining.

“I think for me, the best way is to have consistency over the full season,” explained Pajari.

“Everybody is pushing hard to try and get the stage win points for the championship, so you have to be on a good pace, but it’s also important to get the finish and points from the rally.” The Finn was lucky to finish the Croatia Rally in April when he rolled his M-sport Poland Ford Fiesta Rally4 machine. He also suffered a number of mishaps in 2020, but was pleased to report no such troubles at round three.

“There is a lot of things that can happen in the World Rally Championship. For me in Estonia, there were no issues with the car or with my driving. Everything was really nice,” he added.

Next month’s Renties Ypres Rally Belgium will be unknown territory for the 19-year-old. He was set to compete there in 2020 before organisers cancelled the rally due to Covid restrictions.

“I think we have already seen that Belgium is a very different kind of event,” Pajari mused. “Let’s just say, if it rains, it will be interesting.” Meanwhile, Renties Ypres Rally Belgium Aug.13-15 has atracted the biggest entry for an FIA World Rally Championship round in almost six years.

The three-day asphalt encounter, which marks Belgium’s first appearance as a WRC host, named 108 competitors on the entry list released today (Friday). That’s the most since Rallye de France – Tour de Corse in 2015 when 123 crews started.

Ten top-level World Rally Cars are listed, with manufacturers’ championship leader Toyota Gazoo Racing fielding its regular quartet of Yaris cars for Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta. Former event winners Thierry Neuville and Craig Breen are listed alongside Ot Tänak for Hyundai Motorsport, while Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux replaces Teemu Suninen in a Ford Fiesta alongside Gus Greensmith. Pierre-louis Loubet also wheels out a Hyundai i20.

Suninen steps back to a Fiesta Rally2 in WRC2, with Tom Kristensson driving a second car for MSport Ford. Nikolay Gryazin drives a Volkswagen Polo, while Jari Hutunen and Oliver Solberg debut Hyundai’s new i20 N Rally2.

Belgiansdominatethe18-strongwrc3list.france’s championship leader Yohan Rossel will be hunted by leading home drivers including national series leader Ghislain de Mevius, Kris Princen, Vincent Verschueren and Maxime Poty.