Hirvonen won the under 2000 cc Group A Finnish Rally Championship in 2002. He made his debut as a full-time WRC competitor in 2003 with a third Ford World Rally Team entry, scoring a sixth-place finish at the Cyprus Rally.
After Richard Burns was diagnosed with a brain tumor in late 2003, Hirvonen moved to the Subaru World Rally Team in 2004 as team-mate to 2003 world champion Petter Solberg. He scored points in ten rallies but his best result was fourth, at both Rally Argentina and Rally Australia — performances insufficient to secure a seat for 2005. Hirvonen then campaigned a two-year-old Ford Focus RS WRC 03 as a privateer, leading one rally and achieving a career-best third at Rally Catalunya.
Hirvonen's privateer showings brought him back to Ford's attention and he was signed for the 2006 factory season, driving the new Ford Focus RS WRC 06 alongside Marcus Grönholm. He took his first WRC win at Rally Australia and also placed second at the Rally d'Italia Sardegna, the Rally of Turkey, and the Rally New Zealand. By finishing on the podium for six consecutive rallies he secured third place overall in the drivers' championship.
In the 2007 season Hirvonen started with fifth at the 75ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo and third at the 56th Uddeholm Swedish Rally. He took his second WRC victory in Norway and later won the 2007 Rally Japan and the season-ending 2007 Wales Rally GB, finishing third in the championship — 17 points behind Loeb. Together with Grönholm, Hirvonen secured the manufacturers' title for Ford for the second consecutive year.
On 17 December 2007, Hirvonen was officially named the number one BP-Ford Abu Dhabi factory driver for the 2008 season following Marcus Grönholm's retirement. Jari-Matti Latvala was named his team-mate. Hirvonen started the season with second at the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally. He took his first win of the season at the inaugural Jordan Rally and a second in Turkey. At Rally Finland he finished a close second to Loeb. At Rally New Zealand, Hirvonen was leading when a puncture and spin on the penultimate stage dropped him to third; team-mate Latvala and Stobart M-Sport Ford driver François Duval both crashed out. Hirvonen dropped eight points behind Loeb with four rallies remaining. Loeb clinched the drivers' title in Japan, but the manufacturers' fight remained open. Hirvonen then rolled his car onto its roof on stage five of the Wales Rally GB, dropping to 44th before recovering to eighth. This result meant Hirvonen and Lehtinen became the first WRC drivers ever to score points on every round of a season.
In 2009, Hirvonen narrowly lost the Rally Norway win to Loeb after a tight three-day battle and finished second to Loeb at the following two rounds in Cyprus and Portugal. In Portugal he tied the record for the longest consecutive points-finish streak in the series — 22 events — matching his former team-mate Grönholm. In Argentina, Hirvonen was six seconds behind Loeb after 14 stages when his Focus RS WRC developed an engine problem, handing Loeb a 20-point lead.
At Rally d'Italia Sardegna, Hirvonen could not catch team-mate Latvala, who led from start to finish. At the Acropolis Rally in Greece, Hirvonen took his first win of the 2009 season after Loeb crashed out, cutting the championship gap to seven points. At Rally Poland, Loeb crashed again — recovered to seventh — while Hirvonen won his second consecutive rally and moved to the top of the standings. In Finland, Hirvonen led from the first proper stage to take his debut home win. At Rally Australia, Hirvonen lost a tight battle to Loeb, but Loeb's car was found to have rollbar irregularities — as were those of Dani Sordo and Sébastien Ogier — and all three received one-minute time penalties, handing Hirvonen the win and ten points. Hirvonen led the 2009 championship by a point from Loeb going into the final round, needing a win to take the title, but a hard landing from a jump on the penultimate stage caused the bonnet hinge to fail, and the time lost removing the bonnet cover handed the championship to Loeb.
In 2010 Hirvonen continued with Ford for the last time in the Ford Focus RS WRC before switching to the new 1.6 Ecoboost Ford Fiesta RS WRC in 2011. In 2012, Hirvonen moved to the Citroën Total World Rally Team, driving a Citroën DS3 WRC alongside Loeb. His first rally win for Citroën came in Portugal at round four of the 2012 season, provisionally giving him the championship lead, but he was later disqualified due to irregularities with the clutch and turbo in his DS3 WRC.
In 2013, Hirvonen finished on the podium just five times, took no wins, and ended the season fourth — including one of his biggest accidents in Wales. On 13 December 2013, it was confirmed he would re-join M-Sport (formerly Ford) for the 2014 season. He took two podium places and three power stage victories that season, finishing fourth behind the dominant Volkswagen trio of Sébastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala, and Andreas Mikkelsen. On 6 November 2014, Hirvonen announced his retirement from the WRC moments before the start of the Wales Rally GB.
In 2015, Hirvonen began competing in rally raid for X-Raid with a Mini Countryman, finishing third at the Baja Aragón with co-driver Michel Périn. In January 2016 he finished fourth at the 2016 Dakar Rally. In the 2016 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, he won the Hungarian Baja and finished third at the eAbu Dhabi Desert Challenge and Baja Aragón, ranking fourth in the overall standings. He finished 13th at the 2017 Dakar Rally.
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