The World Rally Championship continued this past weekend with the legendary Acropolis Rally in Greece. Competing in the WRC2 class with Printsport Racing’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, Sami Pajari claimed another class victory. The top spot keeps Pajari and co-driver Enni Mälkönen in the mix for the WRC2 championship title.
The rally, which began on Friday, featured six special stages, comprising three stages run twice. Greece’s treacherous and rocky roads quickly revealed their nature as the Finnish duo suffered a puncture on the very first stage. Fortunately, the puncture occurred near the end of the stage, and they only lost 7.6 seconds to early leader Yohan Rossel.
Rossel started the rally strongly and had extended his lead to 45 seconds by the final stage of the day. However, the harsh conditions of the Greek stages soon caught up with him. A puncture early in the stage saw the Frenchman drop to sixth place. Pajari held his second-place position as Estonia’s Robert Virves edged past him by just 1.5 seconds.
“It was a tough day. Despite the puncture, we didn’t get flustered and stuck to our plan, which was to drive cleanly through the stages. If you push too hard here, it will punish you immediately,” Pajari said at the end of Friday’s stages.
Saturday featured another six stages, with one repeated. Pajari and Virves both had to contend with the dust kicked up by Ott Tänak’s punctured car during the morning’s opening stage, and they were both given the same notional time. On the ninth stage, Pajari set his first fastest time of the rally and moved into the lead. By the end of the day, he had extended his gap over Virves to 27 seconds. Rossel also enjoyed a strong end to the day, climbing back to third place.
“I’m very pleased with today—no drama, no punctures. We just focused on avoiding the rocks without overpushing, and that strategy is working well for us right now,” Pajari commented at Saturday’s evening service break.
Sunday’s final day, consisting of three stages, began strongly for Pajari and Mälkönen. Virves was unable to match their pace, and Pajari added another 10 seconds to his lead on the opening stage of the day. This meant that for the final two stages, Pajari’s main focus was simply to bring the car home safely.
What happened on the final stage will go down in rally history. The Finnish duo started the stage with a 28-second lead, but with just five kilometres remaining, disaster nearly struck. The left front tyre went flat, forcing Pajari to push hard on the damaged tyre. His lead evaporated, and he crossed the finish line with the exact same overall time as Virves: 3:45:05.3. In the event of a tie, the winner was determined by the results of the opening stage, where Pajari had been faster than Virves, securing his victory.
“About five kilometres from the finish, I realised we had a puncture, and I knew the best option was to keep going rather than stop to change it. When we crossed the line, I looked around to see if anyone knew the result, but nobody seemed to know. It took a few minutes to find out that we had won, and it was a huge relief. It was a fantastic battle with Robert, especially in such a tough rally! This win is hugely important for our championship hopes, and in this sport, every tenth of a second matters,” Pajari said with relief.
The gruelling conditions of the Greek event were also reflected in the overall standings, as out of all the top class drivers, only Hyundai’s Neuville, Sordo, and Tänak managed to bring their Rally1 cars to the finish without issues. The final stage drama was compounded by Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier rolling his car, which allowed Pajari and Mälkönen to move up to fourth in the overall standings. Remarkably, this was the pair’s second consecutive fourth-place finish in the overall standings, following their performance in Finland, albeit in a Rally1 car that time.
In the WRC2 championship battle, Oliver Solberg still leads by three points over Pajari. Solberg’s final points-scoring event will be the Chile Rally at the end of September. If the Swede takes the win, he will secure the title, regardless of Pajari’s performance in his final event. Pajari’s last point scoring rally will either be the Central European Rally, held from October 17-20, or the season finale in Japan from November 21-24.
Results – WRC2
1. Sami Pajari & Enni Mälkönen FIN Toyota
2. Robert Virves EST +0.0 Skoda
3. Yohan Rossel FRA +30.8 Citroen
4. Kajetan Kajetanowicz POL +2:52.9 Skoda
5. Fabrizio Zaldivar PY +4:26.8 Skoda
Unofficial standings – WRC2
1. Oliver Solberg SWE 111
2. Sami Pajari FIN 108
3. Yohan Rossel FRA 86