Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has absolved Takamoto Katsuta of blame for the final-stage Safari Rally Kenya crash which cost the Japanese driver fourth place.
Katsuta had been pushing for top Super Sunday points but lost the rear of his Toyota through a medium-speed right-hander and rolled.
While Katsuta made it out of the stage, he retired ahead of the finish and therefore failed to contribute to either his own or Toyota’s tally of points from the African event.
While Latvala wasn’t present in Naivasha, he was kept across decisions and strategies made by the team’s management team on the ground.
Asked about Katsuta’s accident, which came on the back of two stage wins on the final morning, Latvala offered DirtFish an insight into what had been shaping up to be a strong Sunday.
“The one thing I want to make clear,” said Latvala, “is that he had [a] free hand to push on the last stage – that was from the team. The team had given him permission to push. It didn’t go [to plan], it didn’t work. But nobody can blame [him] because he had the right to push.”
Katsuta has been absolved of any blame for his Safari tumble, as Toyota had given him clearance to push
Looking at Katsuta’s event as a whole, Latvala added: “It wasn’t bad, It wasn’t a bad event at all for him. Of course, we believed that he could help us on that Sunday. He was in a strong position before the powerstage and we knew he could win that.
“We knew the value of the points from the powerstage and the Sunday. It’s a risk assessment, we decided to take that risk and this time it didn’t pay off.”
Katsuta is seventh in the world championship standings, with all of his points so far collected from finishing second place at Rally Sweden.
Toyota leads Hyundai by 26 points, but lost 22 points from its advantage in Kenya.
