Ogier and stand-in co-driver Julien Ingrassia had controlled the rally since Friday morning and were 20.9sec clear when their Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 left the road at high speed and rolled several times on the second pass of Västilä.
Both crew members exited the car unassisted before being transported to Tampere hospital for precautionary checks.
Pajari consequently inherited the lead of his home rally and negotiated the final Leustu test without incident, completing Saturday 46.4sec ahead of Toyota team-mate Oliver Solberg.
“Obviously, all the afternoon was about trying to manage the speed,” said Pajari, who is closing on a second victory in succession after his breakout triumph at last month’s Delfi Rally Estonia. “There are still two long stages to do and anything can still happen.”
Elfyn Evans ended an extraordinary day in third, 1min 36.3sec behind Pajari, after recovering from a roll of his own on the morning pass of Leustu.
The championship leader had applied consistent pressure to Ogier across the opening three stages and won Parkkola to reduce the Frenchman’s overnight advantage from 16.3sec to 11.6sec before leaving the road on SS14.
Spectators returned the damaged Yaris to the stage, but Evans lost more than 1min 40sec and fell to fifth. Toyota’s mechanics then completed extensive repairs during midday service, allowing him to rejoin the fight without incurring any penalties.
The Welshman responded by setting three top-two times in the afternoon and arrived at the final stage tied with Adrien Fourmaux for third overall. A stage win on Leustu moved him 3.8sec clear of the Hyundai driver.
“I have to say a huge thanks to the mechanics for lunchtime after my huge mistake,” Evans said. “Perhaps even more importantly, we are hoping for the best for Séb and Julien.”
Pajari had been Saturday morning’s benchmark, winning the first passes of Päijälä and Västilä and closing to within 20.9sec of Ogier before Evans’ accident promoted him to second.
The Finn continued to apply pressure after service, winning Parkkola 2 and Västilä 2. Ogier briefly responded with victory on Päijälä, but his rally ended on the following test.
Toyota deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen confirmed that the team had spoken with Ogier following the accident.
“Séb was more shocked than anything else, nothing broken,” Kankkunen told Rally.TV. “They are in the helicopter on the way to hospital to be checked, which is important after this kind of accident.”
Solberg holds a relatively secure second place after a measured afternoon, while Fourmaux remains within striking distance of Evans in fourth.
Takamoto Katsuta is fifth after using much of Saturday to experiment with set-up changes ahead of Super Sunday.
Thierry Neuville moved into sixth on the final stage, just 1.5sec ahead of Josh McErlean, despite suffering a front-left puncture on Västilä.
Mārtiņš Sesks was another Saturday casualty, rolling his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 early on the morning pass of Leustu. Both he and co-driver RenārsFrancis were unharmed and are expected to restart on Sunday.
Jari-Matti Latvala leads the RC2 class and sits eighth overall, ahead of WRC2 frontrunners Teemu Suninen and Robert Virves.
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h00m38.0s
2 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +46.4s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m36.3s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m40.1s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m54.5s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m52.9s
7 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m54.4s
8 Jari-Matti Latvala/Juho Hänninen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6m50.8s
9 Teemu Suninen/Janni Hussi (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m01.1s
10 Robert Virves/Jakko Viilo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7m04.2s ...
(Results as of 21:00 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
The rally finishes on Sunday with two passes of a new-look Himos-Jämsa stage – the longest of the rally at 30.02 kilometres. The second run through serves as the rally-ending Power Stage with up to five bonus points available for the fastest drivers, plus five more for the quickest across the day.
