Heikki Kovalainen: Hungary Winner, Super GT Champion and Rally Driver

Heikki Kovalainen is best known for a single Formula One victory, the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix with McLaren, but his career has been far wider than that. After Formula One from 2007 to 2013, he moved to Japan, where he won the Super GT title and became a rally champion. This article traces his route from Finnish karts to those later successes.

Who is Heikki Kovalainen?

Kovalainen is a Finnish driver with careers in both circuit racing and rallying. His Formula One years ran from 2007 until 2013, a period that included a 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix win with McLaren. He later took the 2016 Super GT title in Japan and also competed in its rally championship.

Born in Suomussalmi, Finland, on 19 October 1981, he began in karting. He competed from 1991 to 2000, finishing second in Finland's Formula A series in 1999 and 2000, and in 2000 he took the Nordic title and the Paris-Bercy Elf Masters.

That same year he placed third in the World Formula Super A series, which led to his election as Finnish Kart Driver of the Year.

A single Formula One win and a title in Japan: a career that kept finding new ways to win.

How did Kovalainen's junior career build toward Formula One?

Kovalainen started car racing in the British Formula Renault Championship in 2001, finishing fourth with two wins and earning Rookie of the Year. He moved up to British Formula 3 with Fortec in 2002, finishing third overall and again taking the rookie prize.

By the second half of the 2002 season he had become a serious contender. Five wins, every one of them in the last nine races, and three poles and three fastest laps took him to third overall. He also finished second at Macau and fourth at the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort.

In 2003 he moved into the World Series by Nissan, where his teammate Franck Montagny won nine races to his one. In 2004 he switched to Pons Racing and won the championship with six wins and 192 points, which earned him the Finnish Driver of the Year award.

That same year he also won the Race of Champions in Paris, beating Michael Schumacher in the semi-finals and Sebastien Loeb in the final, and he earned the title Champion of Champions.

What happened in his 2005 GP2 title fight?

In 2005 Kovalainen moved into the GP2 Series with Arden International, opening with a win at Imola. He went on to win at the Nurburgring from 17th on the grid and at Magny-Cours from fourth, and he took the points lead before Nico Rosberg's ART team began to win.

At Monaco he claimed pole and led the first 21 laps, also setting the fastest lap, before a problem during his pit stop dropped him to fifth.

At Monza he took his second pole of the season and a feature race win, but a fifth place in the sprint left him only four points clear with four races left. After Spa, Rosberg took the lead, and he won the championship at Bahrain.

He ended the campaign second overall, 15 points behind the champion.

How did the Renault years lead to his first podium?

Renault promoted Kovalainen from test driver to a race seat for 2007 after Fernando Alonso left for McLaren. His debut at the Australian Grand Prix ended in tenth place, and his first world championship point followed at Sepang. Team boss Flavio Briatore had hoped for a stronger start.

His breakthrough came at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway. He stayed out of trouble in wet conditions, and in the closing laps he kept Kimi Raikkonen behind him to finish second, his first podium.

Canada had been a more frustrating weekend: he made errors in practice, failed to reach the second qualifying session, and then lost his podium chance behind Alexander Wurz.

At Indianapolis he qualified sixth and fought his way to fifth, after an early pass on Raikkonen and a spell in the lead during his first stint.

How did Kovalainen win in Hungary with McLaren?

In his McLaren debut in Australia, he topped the opening qualifying session and started third, although he set the fastest lap of that race. He got past Alonso on the last lap only to clip the pit lane limiter, which handed fourth back to him, and he finished fifth. Later in the year he was victorious in Hungary.

Kovalainen joined McLaren for 2008, partnering Lewis Hamilton. His first pole came at Silverstone, and he won the Hungarian Grand Prix, making him the 100th different winner in Formula One history. Race leader Felipe Massa retired with an engine failure three laps from the end, which handed him the win.

The win came after a difficult 2008 season. He had suffered a tyre deflation crash at the Spanish Grand Prix, which left him with a minor concussion, and his tyre problems in Canada and at Silverstone had cost him results.

The team confirmed he would stay with McLaren for 2009 in the week before Hungary,.

How did McLaren's 2009 season and the move to Lotus go?

McLaren struggled for pace in early 2009, and Kovalainen ended the year 12th with 22 points, including a fourth place at the European round in Valencia. He had five retirements that season. In November McLaren signed Jenson Button, leaving him without a seat for 2010.

He joined Lotus Racing for 2010 alongside Jarno Trulli. The car was off the pace in testing, and his first race for the team in Bahrain ended fifteenth, two laps down.

At Valencia in 2010, on lap nine, Webber's Red Bull landed on top of Kovalainen's Lotus after contact and both cars ended up near the barrier. Kovalainen limped back to the pits but retired.

A fire on the final lap at the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix ended his race, but he stopped at the side of the track and tackled the blaze himself, a move the crowd applauded.

He stayed with Lotus in 2011, and he outqualified his teammates in 17 of the 19 races. Team principal Tony Fernandes said he was satisfied with that performance over the season.

What did Caterham and his 2013 stand-in role involve?

Kovalainen stayed on for 2012, when the team was renamed Caterham F1 and he partnered Vitaly Petrov. He finished every race that year except the Australian Grand Prix, and he remained a reserve driver in 2013 before a late call-up.

In 2011 his best finish was 13th at Monza, and in India he ran as high as tenth before finishing 14th.

In November 2013 Lotus confirmed he would stand in for Kimi Raikkonen, who was recovering from back surgery. He raced at the United States and Brazilian Grands Prix, finishing 14th in both.

How did Kovalainen's Super GT career develop?

In 2015 Kovalainen moved to Japan to race in Super GT's GT500 class for Team SARD. In 2016 he and co-driver Kohei Hirate won the championship, and their only win of that season came in the final round at Motegi. They had gone into the closing double header fourth in the standings.

The title was his first championship since the 2004 Nissan World Series. After 2021 he announced his retirement from the series.

He has described rallying as a childhood dream. He entered the Japan Rally Championship in 2016, and in 2021 he ran full-time in the JN2 class, took a class win in every one of the six events, and wrapped up the title early.

In 2023 he made his Extreme E debut for JBXE, partnered by Hedda Hosas, but after two rounds he was replaced by Andreas Bakkerud.

What was Kovalainen's Race of Champions record?

Kovalainen made his Race of Champions debut in 2004 in Paris, where he won the title and became the first non-rally driver to take the Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy. He had never sat in a rally car before that final against Loeb.

He returned in 2005 and beat Bernd Schneider and Felipe Massa before falling in the semi-finals to Tom Kristensen. In 2006 he won the Nations' Cup with Marcus Gronholm.

In 2007 he beat Sebastian Vettel in an individual race, then crashed on the finish line against Andy Priaulx, who got the decision on the final line.

He returned in 2010, but he withdrew after a concussion in a heat race crash with Sebastien Loeb.

What is Kovalainen's legacy?

Kovalainen is remembered for his only Grand Prix win and for the respect he earned while racing uncompetitive Lotus and Caterham cars. In 2020 Formula One and Amazon Web Services ranked him eighth among the fastest qualifiers from 1983 to 2020.

Kovalainen also spent 2019 in the Japan Super Rally Series, and he was set to race full-time in the Japan Rally Championship in 2020 before the pandemic halted those plans. He still won the Chubu-Kinki Rally that year.

The ranking used an algorithm that compared each driver's performance with that of his teammates, a method that favours drivers who beat their partners in similar cars.

Outside Formula One, he is remembered as a rally driver who won a national title in Japan and as a Super GT champion.

What are Kovalainen's main results?

Kovalainen's record spans single-seaters, sportscars and rallies. The table lists his key results, including his only Grand Prix win, his Formula One podium and his Super GT and rally titles. The entries show how his career moved from Formula One into new categories after 2013.