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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Heikki Kovalainen contemplates life after F1


Heikki in the drivers' parade in Abu Dhabi 2012
Heikki may try rally driving
Courtesy of Caterham F1
Heikki Kovalainen says he may try rallying now that the Formula One grid in 2013 would appear to be locked out.

WRC.com report him as saying:
“There’s not much outside of Formula One that interests me, but rallying is one of those things. Sometimes I think it’s a bit surprising that I didn’t become a rally driver earlier in life; I had lots of opportunities when I was growing up to drive on forest tracks, like most kids in Finland, but then I discovered racing circuits. Next year we’ll see what happens: there’s life outside Formula One as well.”
It reports that Kovalainen defeated Sebastien Loeb when the the two went head-to-head in the Champion of Champions final at the 2004 Race of Champions. Kovalainen beat Loeb in identical rally cars: the Peugeot 307 WRC even though he'd never driven the car before.

That win means that he's the only F1 driver to win the title "Champion of Champions" at the annual Race of Champions event.