Former Formula 1 driver Heikki Kovalainen and co-driver Kohei Hirate have won the 2016 Super GT Championship in dramatic fashion for Lexus RC F Team SARD. It was an unusual setup for Super GT, with two races scheduled this weekend — Round 3 had been cancelled in May due to an Earthquake, and both races took place back-to-back.
Kovalainen and Hirate went into the weekend sitting fourth overall in the GT500 championship, 11 points behind reigning champs Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli of Team Nissan AUTECH GT-MOTUL R — here’s a video recap of Round 3 on Saturday:
Team SARD finished Round 3 in second place, putting them three-points up over the second place team — a total of seven teams had a chance to win the Championship entering Sunday’s Round 8 race:
The race ended with Kovalainen winning the race by just 0.472 seconds to take the title by 13 points. This is the first Championship for Team SARD in 23 seasons.