Janne Palomäki
Sami Pajari couldn’t match his teammates’ ride, writes Janne Palomäki.
Sami Pajari cracked a good joke after his interruption. PDO
Sami Pajari certainly does not like to remember his first Monte Carlo in the main class of the rally.
It ended once and for all on Sunday’s first stage, where the Toyota driver fell to a driving error.
– Game over for us, Pajari wrote on Facebook.
The car ended up through the railing of the bridge into a part of the alpine landscape. The fight was really hard.
– The road was very slippery. It had black ice just before the bridge. There was nothing to do. We could only see where the car would end up, he continued.
After that, Pajari showed his eye for the game.
– And the same in Finnish: winter surprised the motorist.
For real a sharp and funny joke lightened the otherwise heavy atmosphere. Pajari had just finished sixth in the virtual race and was caught by at least eight basis points at the time of suspension.
They would have covered up just fine what really no one wanted to say out loud: Pajari had been astonishingly slow.
The slowness raises an embarrassing question.
On the screens of the first three days of Pajaria Monte, would it have ever been promoted to the representative team of Toyota Gazoo Racing? The answer is probably no. He lost evenly by about a second kilometer to team mate Sébastien Ogier.
It’s way too much in a rally.
The performance of the last day can now be left unassessed for reasons of shame.
Pajari made a fool of himself when he wanted to change his map reader. Self the act may still be well justified and even right, but we can’t judge it, because the driver has in no way justified the kicks he gave Enni Mälkönen.
In the light of current information, it looks mostly like school bullying.
Pajari would certainly have liked to finish the most important race of his life in peace. After the Mälkös uproar, it was impossible.
Cooperation with Marko Salminen can eventually lead to success. The duo can very well celebrate the rally world championship in maybe 2-3 years.
Pajar and Marko Salminen’s joint WRC debut ended in an exit. PDO
But right now, Pajar needs to quiet down the noise. In Sweden, in less than three weeks, we should both show competitiveness and drill a decent result.
The longer it takes to prove your level, the greater the pressure becomes.
And the more difficult the task becomes.