A printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The maintenance station comprises an elastically deformable pad having a contact surface for sealing engagement with an ink ejection face of the printhead, and an engagement mechanism for reciprocally moving the pad between a first position in which the contact surface is sealingly engaged with the face and a second position in which the contact surface is disengaged from the face. The engagement mechanism is configured to move the pad rotatably with respect to the printhead such that, during engagement, a first part of the surface is contacted with the face prior to a second part of the surface. During disengagement the second part is disengaged from the face prior to the first part.