Takamoto Katsuta is arguably closer than ever to his first World Rally Championship victory. But can he make up the three second deficit required – and more importantly, will he be best advised to?
At the end of Saturday’s leg of Rally Sweden, Katsuta occupies a strong second place behind Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.
While he was second overnight at 2021’s Safari Rally Kenya, and ended up leading the rally on Sunday morning, he has never been as close to the lead time-wise at this advanced stage of a WRC weekend.
The victory is there for the taking – but he’s in a complicated situation.
Famously, Toyota does not do team orders. Katsuta won’t directly be asked to hold station and not challenge Evans tomorrow.
But perhaps more pertinently, Thierry Neuville is well and truly in the hunt, just 3.3s adrift of Katsuta. Katsuta can’t really back off even if he, or the team, wanted him too, because a Hyundai is lurking so close behind him.
Throw in the pressure for Katsuta to complete the event after an accident on the final day of Monte Carlo, and a crash from second place at last year’s Rally Sweden, and the Japanese finds himself with plenty to think about.
“Yeah it’s been, feeling-wise, a little bit up and down because I was struggling in the car in the morning and afternoon,” he told DirtFish.
“I stalled and reversed once and I lost some seconds there. So, feeling-wise, a little bit, you know, not very happy, but at the end we came back. We had pace and we came back so, yeah, it’s still interesting situation going on, that’s good, and I just try to focus my own driving and own job and try to do my best.”
But is he in a fight for victory?
“Yeah, for sure,” Katsuta smiled. “On my feeling of course I want to do something, you know, push or something because I’m hungry. But I just need to follow the team strategy of course.
“But we cannot forget that Thierry is just behind us and not so far. Anyway, we need to do a good run and a good push tomorrow and [there’s] Sunday points of course, and also keeping our position at least.”
Katsuta is "hungry" to finally grab his first WRC victory
Katsuta’s boss, Jari-Matti Latvala, had a word with him on Friday – reminding him that he needs to prolong the fight, unlike in 2024.
Katsuta’s achieved that, so what’s the advice now?
“Well, we don’t have any team orders,” Latvala told DirtFish. “But of course, there’s a good point to have some discussion with the drivers, how they want to approach. And just to think about both sides that you have a lot of points at stake for the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ and do you want to risk it for the victory?
“These are things where, of course, it’s important to raise up because what we have clearly seen is we don’t have so much data with the tires and how much you can bring the limit with the tires when you start to attack.
“I think that is the question mark which even drivers don’t know, you know, when you have to start taking those last points. Then the mistakes can happen, so that is something we have to bear in our minds.”
Latvala reiterated “it’s a driver’s choice how he wants to go”.
“But it’s something that I want to raise up,” he added, “just as a reminder how you want to see the rally finishing.”
What about the rest?
Neuville thrives when he's in a position of attacking
Evans is the driver still in the box seat, as the rally lead is his. But a couple of small mistakes on the final two stages of Saturday proved nothing is guaranteed yet.
“We’re going to have to just give it our best shot, and see what comes at the end of it,” he said.
Neuville’s grin on Saturday night said it all. He has a very real chance of winning, too.
“I’m not the only one! But we are in the fight,” he said. “Happy to be there after a bit more difficult start.
“Progressively, we were capable of understanding the tires, the car, the balance, improving the setup. We still need a little twist on the setup to make it perfect but we’re not far away.”
Neuville has strong history of conquering Evans on final day shootouts as well.
“It’s obviously visible that the pressure is there,” he smiled. “Elfyn just made a mistake, and for Taka the pressure is on as well, he needs a good result. So let’s try to give them that extra pressure they need tomorrow morning and try to do our best.”
