Where Sami Pajari can improve after WRC title near miss

Sami Pajari: What Happened

Motorsport.com reported on Friday, October 9, 2026 in a story involving Sami Pajari, World Rally Championship, Elfyn Evans. Here is how the report opens:

Sami Pajari has already identified the area where he needs to improve after missing out on a maiden World Rally Championship title by six points. The Toyota driver headed into last weekend’s title decider in Sardinia as the nearest rival to eventual champion Elfyn Evans, sitting 17 points adrift, but ultimately ended the year third in the standings. Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen were…
— Motorsport.com

It is one of many Rally stories we are following today. Below are the key takeaways, how the story is being reported across the sport, background on Elfyn Evans and what to watch next.

Key Takeaways

The story: Where Sami Pajari can improve after WRC title near miss
Who’s involved: Sami Pajari, World Rally Championship, Elfyn Evans and Marko Salminen
League: Rally
First reported: Friday, October 9, 2026 by Motorsport.com

Background: Elfyn Evans

Elfyn Rhys Evans (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈɛlvɨnˈɛvans]; born 28 December 1988) is a Welsh professional rally driver. He has competed full-time in the World Rally Championship since 2014, originally for M-Sport Ford, and since 2020 for Toyota Gazoo Racing. He is the reigning world drivers' champion having won the 2026 World Rally Championship, making him the first Welshman to win the drivers' championship, and the first British driver to win the drivers' championship since Richard Burns in 2001. Evans was also runner-up in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Text from Wikipedia’s Elfyn Evans article, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What’s Next for Sami Pajari

For fans following Sami Pajari, the next things to watch are the race results, qualifying, championship standings and schedule. Stories like this one tend to move quickly, so check back for follow-up reports and reaction as more outlets pick it up.

Latest Rally news today: every WRC headline as it breaks
Live scores and schedules across every sport we cover
More Sami Pajari news from around the web
Around the Web: today’s top sports stories from every outlet

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened with Sami Pajari?

Sami Pajari has already identified the area where he needs to improve after missing out on a maiden World Rally Championship title by six points. The Toyota driver headed into last weekend’s title decider in Sardinia as the nearest rival to eventual champion Elfyn Evans, sitting 17 points adrift, but ultimately ended the year third in the standings. Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen were… Motorsport.com reported the story on Friday, October 9, 2026.

Who reported this WRC story?

Motorsport.com first reported it on Friday, October 9, 2026. ForTheFans summarizes it here with background and related Rally news.

Where can I get the latest Rally news today?

The ForTheFans Rally page collects every WRC headline as it breaks, including race results, qualifying and championship standings, with live scores on our scores page.

Summarized by ForTheFans from reporting by Motorsport.com. Headlines, quoted text and photos belong to their publishers. How we report