Finnish Sami Pajari secured his second consecutive victory in the World Rally Championship at Rally Finland, just two weeks after winning Rally Estonia. For Pajari, this is also a defense of his title in his home rally, as he triumphed here last year, BTA reported.
The Toyota driver beat his teammate Oliver Solberg by 26.7 seconds and a total time of 2 hours, 27 minutes and 58.0 seconds. Third place went to Welshman Elphin Evans, also with a “Toyota Yaris“, and a gap of 52.8 seconds.
Pajari secured the victory virtually yesterday, when he led after the 17th stage, while Sebastian Ogier suddenly dropped from first place due to a crash. Today he only had a momentary worry from Swede Solberg, but in the end he held off the attacks. His victory was Finland's 200th in the WRC, romantically won on their own track. Pajari also became the 14th different Finn to win his home round of the championship.
“This feeling is just incredible“, smiled Pajari after getting out of the car and taking off his helmet. “It was a big thing to win in Estonia, but a home win is always something special. Winning at home has not always been easy for Finns in recent years, but after a really crazy rally we managed it. Big thanks first and foremost to the team, but also to the fans for all the support.“
Solberg finished second despite injuring his back on the way to the fastest time on stage 19, when he just threatened to winner. He improved his result in the typical fast Super Sunday, but fell just 0.025 seconds behind Elfin Evans in the powerstage.
After suffering a spectacular crash during Saturday's stages of Rally Finland, French drivers Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia shared some reassuring news with sports.fr earlier today. The pair suffered injuries in an off-road rollover on the 17th, penultimate stage of Saturday. Admitted to hospital, the pair were able to speak to the media. The French driver tried to calm everyone down. "Julien and I went to hospital for tests and spent the night there as a precaution after this hard hit. But we both feel good, that's the most important thing. The main thing is that we're healthy", Ogier wrote in an Instagram post. The red-flagged stage 17 ultimately ended in victory for Finland's Sami Pajari, who started Sunday as the leader.
Despite a rollover that cost him almost two minutes on Saturday, championship leader Evans finished the podium in third place, now leading the standings by 30 points over Pajari (201 points), who moved up to second place, now with 171 points. Third place in the overall world championship standings goes to Japan's Takamoto Katsuta with 160 points.