WRC
Katsuta apologises to fans and vows to come back stronger
Takamoto Katsuta has apologised to his loyal Japanese fans and vowed to come back stronger next year after a challenging homecoming at FORUM8 Rally Japan.
he home hero has long held a desire to claim victory on home soil, and expectations and local media attention had reached new levels this year after Katsuta’s recent breakthrough wins at Safari Rally Kenya and Croatia.
Katsuta headed into Japan in the form of his life and with the strongest road position he had ever had at his home event, starting second on the road. However, his victory hopes unravelled on the opening stage after he was caught out by a damp patch that was not in his pacenotes. The 33-year-old slid wide and clipped a bank, triggering a right-rear puncture.
The deflation cost only 6.7sec, but it compromised his tyre strategy as he was forced to replace the soft tyre with a hard compound tyre in damp conditions. Katsuta was then fortunate to survive an off onto the grass in Stage 3 on what he described as one of his “worst days” in the WRC.
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Katsuta admitted it was difficult to reset after the disappointment, but he recovered to finish fourth and claim a strong haul of eight Sunday points, continuing to hold second in the championship, 20 points behind team-mate and Japan winner Elfyn Evans.
At the finish, Katsuta was quick to apologise to his fans.
“Sorry to the Japanese fans,” he said. “We were not able to even take a podium. My dream continues. I keep pushing. Thank you to the team for preparing this car on Tarmac. Special thanks to all the Japanese fans. I’ll try next year to get a victory for you.”
The Japanese driver is now even more determined to return next year and complete his dream of standing on the top step of the podium in Toyota City.
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“Obviously, it is a good result for the team. A 1-2-3-4 at Rally Japan is really important,” Katsuta said. “Personally, I’m not very satisfied with my result but, in the end, we got a lot of points. It is nice to come back stronger and next year in Japan I will try to come back stronger again.
“Every year in Japan I feel a lot of energy from the fans. It is something very special and it is why I wanted to do a very good job here.
“It started very badly and it was one of the worst days I have had this year, so it was not so easy to come back. Even resetting ahead of Saturday was not easy, but we came back with quite a good pace and today was good. It is good to have points but I’m not really satisfied and I’m sorry for all the fans.”
The next challenge for Katsuta will play out on gravel as the WRC heads back to Europe for EKO Acropolis Rally Greece (25 - 28 June).
