Jon Armstrong traded the lead with Lauri Joona three times on Rally Sweden today after the pair locked horns on the snow and ice in Junior WRC while Sami Pajari dominated the fight for Wolf Stage Win Points.
Pajari had a day to forget on Friday, returning to action on Saturday as a man on a mission together with co-driver Enni Malkonen. Pajari’s aim was clear, maximise every opportunity to score Wolf Stage Win Points to defend his 2021 Championship title. The Finn dominated much of Saturday, taking five stage wins in a row, coming close to taking a clean sweep of stage wins for the day, until Armstrong denied him on the final stage.
Like Pajari, Robert Virves was focussed on picking up stage wins too on Saturday, despite not picking up a single stage win, the Estonian was on the pace all day, often missing out on a Wolf Stage Win Point by less than a second.
Kenyan driver McRae Kimathi maintained his fourth position on Saturday having a largely uneventful day but more significantly, he was able to steadily improve his pace and gain precious event mileage.
William Creighton is set for scoring his maiden Junior WRC podium on Rally Sweden, the Irishman kept a steady pace all of Saturday, drifting from the fight at the front but did challenge for stage wins on occasion.
The day’s excitement centred around the fight for the Junior WRC lead between Lauri Joona and Jon Armstrong. Joona lost the lead to Armstrong on the opening stage of the day but soon clawed his advantage back by stage 10. Joona built his lead up to 5.5 seconds by stage 11 but from there on Armstrong chipped away at the Finn’s advantage.
Armstrong entered the final stage of Saturday 0.7 seconds behind Joona, after starting the event with zero kilometres of testing, the Northern Irishman outpaced Joona on the last stage of the day emerging with lead by the end of the stage.
Maciej Woda, FIA Junior WRC Championship Manager, said: “We have had a brilliant day of action up and down the field in Junior WRC today. Sami Pajari came so close to grabbing a clean sweep of stage wins in Junior WRC for the first time in four years, but Jon Armstrong made sure to not let that happen. Robert Virves came back strong today, highlighting his strong pace against some tough competition. The fight at the front today was nail-biting with two very different characters going head-to-head and the lead changing three times. A three and a half second gap is not much with four stages remaining, so we are set for a really thrilling finish tomorrow. William Creighton has lived up to his dark horse expectations again today, maintaining a good pace while keeping himself on target for third while McRae Kimathi has put in another intelligent day of driving to gain mileage and experience.”
Jon Armstrong, FIA Junior WRC Leader, said: “It’s been crazy, I got into a better rhythm this afternoon than I did in the morning, and I really tried to neaten up my driving. It’s nice to be leading, I wasn’t expecting that when I came here, so I’m happy and we’re having fun.”