An emotional Takamoto Katsuta has explained the first-corner crash which forced his retirement from the opening day of Rally del Paraguay.
The Toyota driver, who started the Encarnación-based event third in the championship and 41 points off team-mate and series leader Elfyn Evans, took full responsibility for the crash.
Katsuta said: “Obviously, first corner of the stage [and] there was a really, really high-speed straight to come to the corner into the forest. Obviously, it was my mistake, I just came too fast and lost the rear completely. Then, I was not able to recover to the next braking, I went off outside.”
After rolling, the car landed on its wheels and Katsuta continued before parking the GR Yaris Rally1 up further into SS1.
Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston discuss their early exit from Rally del Paraguay
He added: “We stopped because of the cooling package, to not damage the engine, any more damage on the engine. Obviously there is more damage around the car as well, roll cage and things probably, let’s see how badly damaged. But yeah, we rolled, so basically there is nothing left on the car.”
Katusta’s first-stage accident comes on the back of a final-stage crash at the previous round in Finland.
Prior to those two incidents, Katsuta’s consistency had been one of the season’s storylines. The Japanese led the standings after the second of two back-to-back wins in Kenya and Croatia and he remained in title contention with strong results across the next four events. A double puncture in Estonia allied to a troubled outing in Jyväskylä and now an early bath in Paraguay have hit those title aspirations hard.
Katsuta was quick to apologize to Toyota for his mistake, saying: “I’m just sorry for team, it’s nothing else… I don’t know. Of course I’m working hard, but everybody else around me is also working so hard to get me here and to the top, but I’m doing this shit and it’s so bad.
“It’s a long season, long rally, but that’s why it’s also even more feel painful for me, this kind of mistake. It’s like, always there is a tiny line that you [have] success or you fail. It’s just very tough.”
