Competing in Team Aicello’s Toyota Yaris GR Yaris Rally2 car, Kovalainen won the Kumakogen Rally in the Japanese Rally Championship, which concluded on Sunday.
The victory was Kovalainen’s first of the season, and it naturally felt good.
“FINALLY the first win of the rally season with Rally Team AICELLO!,” Kovalainen celebrated on social media.
“Nearly a year since our last win, it was about time to make it happen. A close battle all the way to the end, this time we managed to come out on top,” Kovalainen continued.
Kovalainen beat the host nation’s Hiroki Arai by 6.3 seconds. Arai proved to be Kovalainen’s only real challenger in the event, as Norihiko Katsuta, who finished third, was eventually left more than two minutes behind the leader.
Kovalainen, 43, won the Japanese Rally Championship titles in 2022 and 2023, but the current season has been somewhat more difficult for the Finn. Before the weekend, Kovalainen had achieved four second-place finishes.
The previous round of the Japanese Rally Championship, the Rally Hokkaido, ended in retirement for Kovalainen due to a technical issue. In September, Kovalainen also competed in Rally Lazio in Italy, where he finished eighth overall. His compatriot Benjamin Korhola finished ahead of him in Italy.
Kovalainen has been competing in rallying for several years, but he is best remembered for his time in Formula 1, where he raced between 2007 and 2013 and took one Grand Prix victory during his career with the McLaren team.
