Now that Takamoto Katsuta has fought for a World Rally Championship victory all-event long, he has vowed to push even harder in the future.
The Toyota driver finished Rally Sweden just 3.8 seconds behind his team-mate Elfyn Evans after an epic rally-long battle.
Katsuta grabbed the lead of the rally on the first stage of Sunday morning but lost too much ground on the next, meaning he was consigned to second place with just the short Umeå powerstage to go.
But this was an important performance from the Japanese driver, who sustained his speed but also managed the risks to help deliver a 1-2 for his team.
“It’s been a quite strong weekend for me,” Katsuta told DirtFish. “My equal best result in my career, in second overall. It’s very nice to finish and I’m quite happy for the team.
“I was able to bring the car back and at the same time bring the points quite a lot. So yeah, one of the biggest jobs done. That’s one of the happiest points for me.
Katsuta and Aaron Johntson joined team-mates Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin for a Toyota 1-2
“On the other hand, I’m really disappointed in myself I was not able to push and take risk on second-last stage, and at the same time Elfyn did an amazing stage. He did a really, really good, strong whole stage on the second-last, so I was not able to match his time.
“At this point, you know the last stage in Umeå, you can’t make a big difference, so then it was almost done.
“So I just decided to bring the car back and at the same time push if I feel comfortable for powerstage points, of course.
“The whole weekend felt quite consistent and good but I had also quite strict strategy to bring the car back. But we did it with this strong performance which I’m very happy [about].”
It’s the first time ever I've been in this kind of so tight battle whole weekendTakamoto Katsuta
Driving with that level of pressure – knowing he had to go fast but not make a mistake – has often been where Katsuta has cracked.
But not in Sweden.
“Yeah, let’s say it’s the first time ever I’ve been in this kind of so tight battle whole weekend between Elfyn and the world champions [Neuville and Tänak],” he said.
“That was an incredible experience for me, and like you said, there’s no [room] to make any mistakes and there was some pressure all the time.
“But, surprisingly, I was really relaxed and I didn’t feel that I going to make a mistake, I just drive with my feeling and then time is coming. And it was so comfortable all weekend.
“Of course, at some points I was struggling a bit with the car and things but this is quite normal – like not only me, everybody sometimes [this] happens [for].
“But overall I’m pretty happy how I managed this pressure and the things. Now I have done one clean rally, so when I next time am coming then I continue to have a clean rally, then at some point [I will] push more. Then let’s see what can happen.”
Katsuta feels he has turned a corner with his performance in Sweden. Where he was “too hungry” to take his first victory before, he was more patient this weekend.
“I’ve been working quite a lot with my engineers and also Tom Fowler and Séb Ogier was also helping a lot, Kalle [Rovanperä] as well, he’s one of my best friends,” Katsuta revealed.
“And, yeah, Séb was always helping me and we talk quite a lot on the phone.
“And finally it worked, finally like this, and I hope he’s also happy. And next time I try to do an even better job.”
