WRC Finland 2026: Sami Pajari Hit by Demister Issue, Still Chasing Sebastien Ogier

Sami Pajari ended Friday at WRC Finland 2026 in third overall after a windscreen demister problem cost him significant time, but the Finn insists his fight for victory is far from over.

Pajari began the afternoon loop in third place, exactly eight seconds off the lead. He immediately set the fastest time on the opening special stage and moved into second overall, just 5.4 seconds behind his Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

Torrential rain then transformed conditions on Saarikas. Pajari set the third-fastest time and reduced the gap to Ogier to 3.3 seconds. “About a kilometre after the start it began to rain, and it became incredibly heavy very quickly. We thought we’d probably got away with it, and we managed to take a few seconds back from Seb as well. At that point we were still in a really good position,” Pajari said.

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The situation changed on the following run through Sydänmaa. A faulty demister left the windscreen heavily misted even though the indicator showed the system was operating. Pajari said he was driving at around 160 km/h with one hand while using the other to wipe the windscreen with a cloth attached to a telescopic handle.

The problem cost Pajari almost 35 seconds to Oliver Solberg on the second pass through Sydänmaa and dropped him back to third overall. “We switched on the windscreen demister as usual, and the indicator light showed it was on. But we never thought to check whether it was actually blowing any air. When we tested it by hand, it wasn’t working at all,” he said.

Pajari finished Friday 26.7 seconds behind Ogier. Although his challenge suffered a setback, the gap to second place remains around 10 seconds while the car behind is approximately 15 seconds back, leaving him with little reason to reduce his pace on the remaining stages.

“There are still almost 200 competitive kilometres left. We’re far from giving up,” Pajari said. He also hopes Saturday will provide a more equal contest after weather and technical issues played a major role in Friday’s running.