Takamoto Katsuta had high hopes to build on his first two career World Rally Championship wins earlier this year with a victory on home soil in Japan.
From the get go it all fell apart. On stage one he ran wide and punctured a tire, having dipped a wheel into a concrete drainage ditch. Two stages later and he was off the road entirely, lucky to simply slide off into the long grass and continue. But by then his confidence was shattered and a minute had been lost.
He went on to be second-fastest on both the final day as a whole and the powerstage – but that, in his mind, failed to make up for the earlier disappointment of dropping out of the lead fight.
“Sorry to the Japanese fans,” said Katsuta. “We were not able to take even a podium, so I’m sorry for them. Their support was amazing on the road sections.
“Still my dream continues, so I keep pushing. I will try next year and get a victory for you.”
Katsuta was adored by fans again at his home event. He feels he let them down with his fourth place finish
After the initial disappointment of his fourth place finish had settled in, Katsuta started searching for positives.
“I have to celebrate for the team, that’s clear,” he told DirtFish. “A 1-2-3-4 finish in Japan for Toyota is very important.
“Of course, personally, this is not the way I wanted [the rally to go] and fourth overall is not really what I was expecting for myself. Still, after what happened on Friday we came back strong enough and with decent pace on Saturday – and even better pace on Sunday. I think we took the point as much as possible that we needed to.”
Somewhat ironically Katsuta prevented Toyota from achieving a perfect score in the manufacturers’ championship in Japan. He was not registered for manufacturer points and non-points-scoring entries do not become ‘invisible’ for purposes of counting power stage points – so third-fastest Sébastien Ogier only contributed three points, not four, to Toyota’s total.
Katsuta remains second in the drivers’ title race, 20 points behind Rally Japan winner Elfyn Evans.
