Pajari loses seconds, but the reason is a mystery.
Sami Pajari drives fourth in Kanaria. Vesa Pöppönen / AOP
Toyota’s Sami Pajari didn’t quite reach the top speed in the World Rally of the Canary Islands on Friday.
Pajari is fourth in the race, 16.7 seconds behind the leader, team mate Sebastien Ogier. Elfyn Evans, who is third, is just 1.3 seconds away from Pajar.
Suomalasikuski admitted that the time difference to the top was surprising. According to Pajar, the feeling for the car’s adjustments was not the best possible.
– It was a bit like the trend in the morning. It didn’t really feel very good. I don’t normally like to change the settings very much during a run, because then there is a big risk of things going wrong and losing more time, Pajari said.
– This time, however, I felt that something had to be tried, but not all the changes were very good. It’s a shame in itself, because otherwise it went quite well.
However, Pajari, who has reached the podium three times in a row in the World Rally Championship, has not thrown the ax down the drain. The difference to the podium is only a few seconds, and the battle for victory is not too far away.
– It would be important to get a clean start tomorrow, because we are still not very far. Anything can still happen. Of course, the situation is not the best, but nothing is lost. We just have to push.
Strange situation
Pajari didn’t understand why the speed was exhausted for a few seconds with each cut. The feeling was good to say the least, but especially Ogier and Oliver Solberg continuously clocked better special test times.
– It’s strange. There were bits where the feeling wasn’t so good, but still the time was good. Then there were bits again where it felt good, but the time was better. It’s somehow difficult to assess what went wrong, Pajari summed up.
– I felt that I drove cleanly and nicely, and I didn’t drive under the tires. I was probably too careful, because maybe I should have driven the tire harder and tried to find that last limit. It just doesn’t make sense why we lost.
Six special tests will be run in the Canary Islands on Saturday. The race ends on Sunday.
