Katsuta had to sit out the previous WRC event in Chile as Toyota wanted the Japanese driver to “reset” his situation after a couple of disappointing results.
Katsuta returned to the driver’s seat of Toyota’s Rally1 car for the tarmac event in Central Europe, where he holds fifth place after the first full day of competition. He’s now over half a minute behind the leader.
Katsuta breathed a sigh of relief as he arrived at service in Germany after tackling the challenging stages in the Czech Republic.
“I had another kind of extra pressure on myself after skipping one rally in Chile. Now it feels good,” Katsuta admitted.
“At least I have done two days. The next two days are cleaner for sure, but it’s still a rally where you never know what will happen. So I just need to stay focused and try to do my best,” the Japanese driver reminded.
The WRC’s leading drivers pulled away from Katsuta during Friday’s stages. On the other hand, Katsuta didn’t have as favourable a road position as Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak, or Toyota teammates Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans.
“We had a bit of a disadvantage because of the road position, but we knew that already beforehand. I just backed off a bit as we planned. I’m a bit far from the top, but this is what we expected and had to accept,” Katsuta emphasised.
Katsuta hopes to pick up the pace on Saturday when the stages will take place in Germany and Austria.
“For sure we can enjoy it more because there are fewer changes in conditions. But at the same time, you probably can’t gain much time. The gaps are probably going to be very close. I just need to be clever enough to bring the car to the finish,” Katsuta said.
