The morning’s biggest news was, of course, Hyundai’s Ott Tänak’s violent crash. The Estonian’s rally ended there, and at the same time, his teammate Thierry Neuville secured his first-ever World Rally Championship title.
However, the drama didn’t stop there. Moments later, Heikki Kovalainen, competing in Rally Japan with a Toyota Rally2 car, also crashed at exactly the same spot, and his car landed on Tänak’s wrecked Hyundai.
“I need to check, but perhaps I was too optimistic with the pace notes. I think I didn’t account enough for the tightening of the corner and simply approached it too fast,” Kovalainen explained during WRC’s live broadcast.
Earlier, Tänak and his co-driver Martin Järveoja, who had crashed in almost the same way at the same spot, were left stranded in the woods licking their wounds. Kovalainen then made a chilling revelation about the situation.
“I don’t know what happened, but we ended up on top of Tänak’s car. And Martin was there. It was a huge stroke of luck that we didn’t hit Martin. I’m really grateful that nothing happened. But, of course, this is very frustrating”, Kovalainen said.
