The final stage of the World Rally Championship ended in Japan on Sunday morning, and although the title was won ahead of schedule by young Finnish racer Kalle Rovanperä in October, there was still great interest in Rally Japan.
Everyone had their own reasons for this, Finnish fans in particular followed the WRC stage debut of Heikki Kovalainen, a former Formula 1 driver who has recently completed a very successful career in the Japanese Super GT series and is now building a new one. discipline for themselves.
In the previous two years, Heikki became the Japanese rally champion, speaking in less prestigious classes, but this time he made his World Championship debut in a four-wheel drive Skoda Fabia R5. He performed very confidently, finishing 4th in the WRC-2 category and taking 10th overall, earning points on the first attempt. It is curious that Kovalainen was even ahead of Rovanper, the title holder, but Kalle was just unlucky in the World Cup final, this time he was dogged by all kinds of problems.
Victory in Japan went to veteran Belgian Thierry Neuville, a factory team driver Hyundai, who finished 3rd in the individual WRC standings at the end of the season.
We talked about Kovalainen’s plans to finally go to the world rally next year, but so far the Finn is not ready to share with which team and which car he will drive in the WRC. Success in the debut race will of course be an important argument he uses in the negotiation process.
Source: F1 News
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