In typical Takamoto Katsuta fashion, his first words were for his team-mates.
“We knew that it was going to be a big day today, but unfortunately those difficulties happened to my team-mates. I’m very sorry for them,” he said.
Oliver Solberg, Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans had all been ahead, but none of them made Saturday’s final media zone. Evans parked up on Sleeping Warrior 1 while both Solberg and Ogier stopped on the road out of it.
Katsuta survived, and carries a 1m25.5s advantage over Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux into Sunday’s final four stages.
Will this weekend finally be the one Katsuta claims that elusive maiden World Rally Championship win?
“I focus on my job,” Katsuta told DirtFish. “If it happens, it happens.
“Sometimes it’s very unfair. Especially Oliver, Seb and Elfyn, they all did a super-great job over the weekend and it ended like this. I really feel [for] them. Yeah, I just now focus my job to bring her back.”
Perhaps the greatest stroke of fortune on Katsuta’s side was the cancelation of Sleeping Warrior 2 – the stage that caused so much strife in the morning.
“We got to the time control, helmet on and prepared everything as always,” he explained, “and then I heard it and I was not sure that it was still canceled or not so I have to make sure that I’m ready to go.
“So I prepared everything but then Jon [Armstrong] was still there [ahead of me] so I knew that it would be canceled at this moment. So it’s like kind of luck maybe on my side today.”
As bad as he may feel for his team-mates, there wouldn’t be a more popular victor if Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston can hold on on Sunday.
