Takamoto Katsuta explains factors behind his “worst…

Takamoto Katsuta says extra pressure around his home round of the World Rally Championship was not the reason for what he labelled as his “worst day of the season so far”.

Winning Rally Japan has long been a key objective for the Toyota driver and this year expectation had risen after Katsuta delivered a maiden WRC win in Kenya, which was followed up by a second success in Croatia.

However, Katsuta’s victory hopes began to unravel in the damp opening stage when he ran wide and clipped a bank, causing a left rear puncture. While the puncture only cost 6.7s in the stage, being forced to replace it with a hard tyre for the following two damp stages contributed to more time lost. Katsuta was then lucky to survive an off in stage three that put his GR Yaris onto the grass and left him 43.8s from the lead at midday service.

In a bid to try and gain back time, Katsuta opted for a soft/hard tyre mix hoping the stages would continue to have damp sections, but unfortunately it didn’t pay off. The 32-year-old ended Friday in sixth 1m03.6s from the lead.

Katsuta was quick to dismiss any suggestions that the pressure to win had impacted his driving. Instead, he cited the lack of information about the conditions from his route note crew that had passed through the stages earlier.

Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 (Photo by: Toyota Racing)

“So many things [went wrong],” said Katsuta. “Straight away in stage one it started with a puncture and then we went in the wrong direction. I lost a soft tyre and I had to use a hard tyre in the second stage, which was quite wet and everything went wrong.

“Unfortunately, it is like this and it is the worst day of the season so far.

“Obviously there is a lot of pressure but this is not the reason [for] what happened in the morning, it is clear that there was some miscommunication with the pacenotes and this is the main reason. So, the pressure on my shoulders doesn’t matter. The pressure is always there so I don’t think this is the main issue.

“There are two days to go so I need to come back stronger, I cannot be like this today. I’m very disappointed."

Jari-Matti Latvala, Toyota team principal (Photo by: Toyota Racing)

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala suggested that his driver may have been overdoing it in certain areas to try and win this rally. Latvala is well versed in this situation when striving to win his home WRC round in Finland.

“I could see that he has won two rallies this year and he comes to the event and he wants to win this event more than anything,” said Latvala.

“I had a talk with him during lunchtime and he said he did everything he could to prepare and everything he can do. But sometimes you start to overdo it, and I think it is a case where you are not relaxed any more and you do not have the natural way of driving. You start thinking about everything.

“I have had the same problem in Finland. I told him today it took Juha Kankkunen 10 years to win Rally Finland. You take the pressure of the home event so much before you learn to deal with that kind of pressure. I think it was the matter of the day.”

When asked to address Katsuta’s concerns over lack of information from his route note crew, Latvala added: “Yesterday’s rain meant there was moisture on the ground and we had a meeting and we knew it would dry out but we couldn’t say exactly how much it would dry out.

“Then it comes to the situation of the route note crew that goes through the stage before, and they have information, but still there is evolution of the stage with that [before the driver enters the stage].

“In some places it is drier but then you have to look with your eyes. I don’t know exactly where he had the moment [in stage one], so did most of the drivers have that in their information, I don’t know? We will have to look into it.

“It is a bit like Monte Carlo, you have to look at the road conditions yourself. Of course, it is not easy to do and it is a human thing. And it also can be that the route note crew didn’t find it [that damp patch] but you have to have a fine balance with it, between what you can drive, and what you can see.”