DECEMBER 4, 2004

Kovalainen is Champion of Champions

The Race of Champions in Paris has been won by Heikki Kovalainen.

The Race of Champions in Paris has been won by Heikki Kovalainen. The young Finn beat David Coulthard in the first round and then moved on to defeat Jean Alesi, who had previously dealt with American Casey Mears. Kovalainen thus ended up against Michael Schumacher, who had made it to the Racers final by defeating Felipe Massa and then Sebastien Bourdais (who defeated Kenny Brack). The Kovalainen- Schumacher battle resulted in the Finn winning by more than 10secs and took him into the Grand Final where he took on and beat World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb by 0.8sec.

Loeb had made it to the final by beating Tony Kanaan and then Armin Schwarz, who had defeated Jimmie Johnson in the first round. After beating Schwarz Loeb beat Marcus Gronholm, who had made it to he final by defeating Stephane Sarrazin and then Mattias Ekstrom (who had beaten Colin McRae).

The national teams will now go on to contest the Race of Champions tonight.