Having competed in Japan for several years, Kovalainen is now taking part in the country’s World Rally Championship round for the fourth time. Last year, the former Formula 1 star was running fourth in WRC2 before crashing out on the final day.
The asphalt event began on Thursday with a short opening stage, where Kovalainen took no unnecessary risks. He set the eighth-fastest time among the Rally2 cars, 3.2 seconds slower than Oliver Solberg, who has already been crowned this year’s WRC2 champion.
After the stage, Kovalainen managed to have the last laugh during the ceremonial start. Solberg addressed the Japanese crowd with a short sentence in Japanese, but moments later Kovalainen fired off several sentences in fluent Japanese.
“I will never beat Oliver on the stages but I beat him at Japanese,” Kovalainen grinned towards Solberg.
“Yeah, 1–0 to me! Or maybe 1–1, because Oliver was quicker on the first stage,” Kovalainen added with a smile.
Rally Japan has attracted a strong WRC2 field, with several international names taking part. Alongside Solberg, the list of contenders includes Nikolay Gryazin, Gus Greensmith, Alejandro Cachon and Jan Solans.
Kovalainen does not believe he can match Solberg’s outright pace.
“I’ll be on the ropes on Friday, that’s for sure. But he can go. He’s young and fast and all that. But I’ll be battling with Hiroki-san,” Kovalainen said, referring to Japanese driver Hiroki Arai, who was once part of Toyota’s WRC development programme.
“We’ve been fighting together all season here in Japan. In the end I won the championship. So he is the guy with whom I’ll be battling this weekend. All these other pros can go. They’re in the other league,” Kovalainen laughed.
After Kovalainen’s comments, Solberg had the final word.
“This is only an excuse until he is flat out tomorrow morning,” Solberg smiled.
Rally Japan continues in full swing on Friday with six special stages on the schedule.
