Sami Pajari has already identified the area where he needs to improve after missing out on a maiden World Rally Championship title by six points.
The Toyota driver headed into last weekend’s title decider in Sardinia as the nearest rival to eventual champion Elfyn Evans, sitting 17 points adrift, but ultimately ended the year third in the standings.
Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen were ultimately unable to overturn the deficit despite finishing the rally in third behind rally winner Oliver Solberg. The podium was Pajari’s ninth from 13 rounds, a run that included a breakthrough maiden WRC win in Estonia followed by record-breaking back-to-back victories in Finland and Paraguay. As a result, the pairing ended the year with the most visits to the podium outlining the potential to become perennial title contenders in the future.
Although disappointed to miss out on the title, the 24-year-old was quick to acknowledge the progress made in only his second full-time season at the WRC”s top level.
“We lost it by only six points, so it was still very, very close,” Pajari told Motorsport.com. “Someone said that if we didn’t have Super Sunday points like it is now [in the regulations] I could have been the champion easily so there are always some ways to think about it. The regulations are what they are at the moment and that is the way we go. Still, we had a good season and we need to be happy.
“From that side [three wins, nine podiums, it is pretty good. After the terrible Monte Carlo [where I crashed twice], We have had stage wins on almost every rally and most of the times we were many times on the podium, many times we were close to the win. We had a very competitive pace most of the time.
“So I think we need to be very, very happy. It’s only my second season [at the top level]. At the same time, Elfyn has been around for 10 years or more. Oliver was first in a Rally1 car when I was in Rally4 car so still I feel that I’m young and can do some nice things myself.
Sami Pajari Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“I’m very happy for Elfyn. It has been a long time coming for them. I’m still young and there is still time to chase some titles in the future which I think we will most likely do.”
Having now proved he has the ability to challenge for a title, Pajari says one area where he needs to improve is his ability to take more risks.
“I think one of the things is simply sometimes taking more risks,” he explained
“Even on Sunday, we saw on some stages that I was taking a little bit more risk. For the first time, I won Super Sunday. So once again I proved to myself that I can be fast on Sundays.
“And even though I was fast, I wasn’t crashing. So I need to be more confident and push even harder.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
