Sami Pajari Loses Portugal WRC Podium After Late Puncture

Sami Pajari saw his impressive Rally Portugal 2026 weekend end in major disappointment after a puncture on Sunday’s penultimate stage destroyed the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver’s podium hopes.

The Finnish driver had been consistently fighting near the front throughout the rally and remained in contention for second place heading into the final day. However, a puncture on one of the rocky sections forced him to stop and change the tyre, costing nearly three minutes and dropping him to seventh overall.

“Of course it is frustrating, but there are still many positives to take away from this rally overall,” Pajari explained.

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According to Pajari, the tyre damage was practically unavoidable because of the extremely rough Portuguese gravel conditions and the deep rocky ruts created during the final loop of the event.

“Honestly, I do not think there was much I could have done about the puncture. It becomes a bit of a lottery when you drive through those rocky ruts. One tyre breaks in one place, another somewhere else. This time it just happened to hit us,” he said.

Pajari revealed that he immediately recognised the impact point that caused the puncture. Interestingly, teammate and rally leader Sebastien Ogier suffered a puncture at exactly the same location only moments earlier.

“For me it was quite clear where it happened, and Seb had his puncture in exactly the same place. I think there was a bigger rock there that gradually became more exposed. By the time we arrived, it was sticking out enough to cause the damage,” Pajari added.

Before the incident, Pajari had produced one of the strongest performances of his WRC career on gravel. Under equal road conditions on Thursday and Friday, the young Toyota driver repeatedly matched the pace of the fastest drivers.

After two full days of competition, Pajari sat third overall and remained firmly in the podium fight despite constantly changing weather conditions throughout Saturday. He entered Sunday trailing second place by only a few seconds.

Rally Portugal also represented a major opportunity for Pajari to extend his streak of four consecutive WRC podium finishes. However, the positive run eventually ended because of the late puncture drama.

“That run of four podiums was already pretty good. It definitely looked like there could have been a fifth one as well, so naturally it is disappointing to lose it like that,” he admitted.

Despite missing out on a major result, Pajari chose to focus more on the performance gains he achieved throughout the weekend rather than dwelling on the disappointment. He believes his ability to maintain competitive pace from a difficult road position represented one of the most important achievements of the rally.

“In a way, being able to drive that well from such a difficult road position and still set competitive times in those really difficult conditions is something I have to be satisfied with. These conditions probably have not been my strongest area before, so at least there are clear signs of progress,” Pajari concluded.