Why Rally Finland victory means as much as a WRC title to Pajari

Sami Pajari says winning Rally Finland is “a massive thing”, claiming that a home victory and a World Rally Championship title are equally important to Finnish drivers.

After claiming his first WRC win two weeks ago in Estonia, the Toyota driver beat team-mate Oliver Solberg to victory by 26.7s in what proved to be a drama-filled fast gravel rally.

Pajari became the 14th Finn to win the event and, at 24, its second-youngest winner behind Simo Lampinen.

When asked if this win was more special than his maiden triumph in Estonia, Pajari elaborated on why this specific rally was a massive achievement in his career.

“It's a bit tricky to say. In a way, the first win is always kind of unique because obviously it's the first one.

“But of course, winning Rally Finland for me as a Finn, it's also very special, so I would say that to win Rally Finland or become world champion, it's quite equal. It's a massive thing. So it's quite tricky to now say which feels just more or which feels better, because it's amazing things.

“I didn't really expect to win, or at least I knew that the challenge is really big and it's really a tough event even for the local drivers.

“Especially lately, we have seen here or in the past that it took many years for Juha [Kankkunen] to take the first win, and the same happened basically with Kalle [Rovanpera] just recently, so I knew that it was going to be really tough. Of course, I know that we can do it because we also already did it in Estonia. But still, I thought that this would be even more tricky. The simple answer is, I wanted to win, of course, but I didn't really expect that.”

Pajari grateful for support from WRC legend Ari Vatanen

Sami Pajari, Marko Salminen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Fellow Finn and 1981 WRC champion Ari Vatanen was among the first to greet a clearly emotional Pajari at the finish. Pajari revealed that Vatanen supported him throughout his victorious Estonia weekend and continued to do so in Finland.

“In Estonia, after every day, he sent me messages that you are doing really well and so on. And then I saw him before the race, and then just before the last stage, Ari came to me and he hugged me and said that, "You have done absolutely great."

“Then I answered that we have one more stage to go, and then he said "it doesn't matter, you basically did it already, so just enjoy the last stage,” and that's what we did. And it was a nice reception that he was there at the finish line, it's really, really special.”

Sami Pajari, Marko Salminen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Pajari’s victory further strengthened his title hopes, moving him into second in the championship, 30 points behind team-mate Elfyn Evans.

“Of course, it's nice to be in the mix, but it's not really changing anything," said Pajari.

"All the races this season, all the races before, I was always trying to do the best I can on each event. And if we are fighting for championship or fighting for local, national rally stage win, I'm still in there, and I try to do the best I can. Of course, it's nice to be in a fight for the world championship.”