{"id":829485,"date":"2026-07-28T17:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829485\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T17:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:18:16","slug":"why-sami-pajari-believes-estonia-win-wont-make-rally-finland-any-easier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829485\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sami Pajari believes Estonia win won\u2019t make Rally Finland \u201cany easier\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claiming a first World Rally Championship win won’t make this week’s homecoming Rally Finland “any easier”, according to\u00a0Sami Pajari<\/a>, who said he cannot \u201cunderestimate the competition”.<\/p>\n

After dominating the first fast gravel event of the WRC season in Estonia, Pajari will now be viewed as one of the favourites to challenge for victory on home soil. The factory Toyota driver heads into the event in the best form of his career to date following the win in Estonia – his sixth podium finish from the last eight rounds. No other driver has visited the podium more times this year.<\/p>\n

Finland, alongside Estonia, is regarded among Pajari\u2019s favourite events on the calendar and while the 24-year-old is ready to fight after scoring a maiden WRC victory two weeks ago, he expects serious competition this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it is the best possible preparation for Rally Finland to do such a great result in Estonia,\u201d Pajari told Motorsport.com. \u201cThe rallies are not exactly the same but some of the bits are quite similar. So, what is common in these rallies is you need to have really big self-confidence. You really need courage to be able to go flat out on those demanding and fast stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is promising of course [after the win]. But still, we can never underestimate the competition, so it is not really going to be any easier going into Finland. Of course, we are ready for the fight and we can win if everything goes our way.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany will be expecting that we can win again; we can\u2019t underestimate the competition, but we of course hope that we can make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sami <\/p>\n

Sami Pajari dominated in Estonia<\/p>\n

Photo by: Toyota Racing<\/p>\n

Pajari\u2019s win in Estonia means all five Toyota drivers have now enjoyed victories this season and are firmly locked in a thrilling title race. Championship leader Elfyn Evans<\/a> tasted victory in Finland twice before and heads there leading Takamoto Katsuta<\/a>, who finished second last year, by 25 points.<\/p>\n

Sebastien Ogier<\/a> also has two Finland wins under his belt but is eager to boost his hopes of a 10th world title after losing ground to Evans in Estonia. Ogier will be reunited with his eight-time world title winning co-driver Julien Ingrassia<\/a>, who stepped in at the last minute to replace Vincent Landais<\/a>, who will be absent due to personal reasons.<\/p>\n

Oliver Solberg<\/a> is renowned for his pace on fast gravel and will be eyeing Finland as an opportunity to close the 47-point gap to Evans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fantastic to see Sami score his first win in Estonia and it\u2019s been wonderful to watch his growth this season,” said Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala<\/a>, who will be competing in a Rally2 car this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also remarkable that all five of our drivers have now won rallies this season, and they all still have chances in the championship. They\u2019re also all capable of winning Rally Finland, our team\u2019s home event, and I think we can expect a tight fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first of 20 Rally Finland stages begin on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Claiming a first World Rally Championship win won’t make this week’s homecoming Rally Finland “any easier”, according to\u00a0Sami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,6214,806,805,803,804,32480,402827,85,32478,402826,10277],"class_list":["post-829485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-finland","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-rally-finland","tag-sami-pajari","tag-sports","tag-toyota-racing","tag-why-sami-pajari-believes-estonia-win-wonu2019t-make-rally-finland-u201cany-easieru201d","tag-wrc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}