Sunday began dramatically at Rally Japan as Ott Tänak suffered a heavy crash near the end of the day’s opening stage. The Estonian’s retirement handed his teammate Thierry Neuville the drivers’ championship in the season finale.
Shortly after Tänak’s incident, Heikki Kovalainen, competing in a Toyota Rally2 car, approached the same spot. Like Tänak, Kovalainen carried too much speed into a right-hand corner, veered off the road, and collided with Tänak’s stationary Hyundai.
Kovalainen later released an onboard video of the incident, captured by his car’s internal camera.
“I don’t know what happened, but we ended up on top of Tänak’s car. And Martin (co-driver Järveoja) was there. It was a huge stroke of luck that we didn’t hit Martin. I’m really grateful that nothing happened,” Kovalainen said after returning to the service park.
Footage from Tänak’s onboard camera revealed just how close the call was. Järveoja, partially inside the car at the time, spotted Kovalainen’s approaching vehicle and reacted quickly, running out of harm’s way.
Pues no ha habido una desgracia tras el golpe de Tanak de misericordia.
— RallyCast (@rallycast_) November 24, 2024
Jarveoja la libra por poco cuando cae Kovalainen #WRC pic.twitter.com/KuqxtM9OFf
If the video above does not load, you can watch it here here.
Tänak had been leading Rally Japan before his crash. His retirement ultimately cost Hyundai the manufacturers’ title, as Toyota clinched it by a narrow three-point margin thanks to their Power Stage performance.
Kovalainen, who was running fourth in the WRC2 category at the time, escaped unscathed. The class was won by Nikolay Gryazin, with Sami Pajari finishing second and claiming the WRC2 championship title.
