The Japanese driver lost control of his car and drove into a snowbank. The car sank deep into a ditch and got stuck from the bottom. Before the mishap, Katsuta was in second place in the rally, only 0.9 seconds behind the leader, Esapekka Lappi.
Lappi’s position as the leader of the race was further solidified after the Toyota driver’s exit. Lappi now leads the rally by a minute and a half ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux.
Lappi is chasing only his second World Championship victory. So far, his sole first-place finish came from Rally Finland in 2017.
“I’m relly sorry for Taka. He had great speed last year, also this year maybe even better. A big shame. But these things can happen. The banks can be your friend until you use them too much. It’s going to be a long two days,” summarised Lappi.
Fourmaux holds the second place with an 11.4-second lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
“Well, it’s a crazy rally to be fair. Many things happening. The grip is quite good but it’s quite easy to get stuck in the snow bank from carrying too much speed,” said Fourmaux.
In fourth place in the overall standings is Oliver Solberg driving a Skoda Rally2 car, ahead of Georg Linnamäe and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who lost a significant amount of time on Friday.
Five more special stages will be run in Rally Sweden on Saturday. The event concludes on Sunday.
Standings after SS10/18 of Rally Sweden:
1. Esapekka Lappi Hyundai 1:14:06.5 2. Adrien Fourmaux Ford +1:31.6 3. Elfyn Evans Toyota +1:43.0 4. Oliver Solberg Skoda +2:01.6 5. Georg Linnamäe Toyota +2:21.6 6. Thierry Neuville Hyundai +2:48.7 7. Sami Pajari Toyota +2:51,7 8. Roope Korhonen Toyota +3:00.8 9. Mikko Heikkilä Toyota +3:05.8 10. Lauri Joona Skoda +3:44.4 11. Nikolay Gryazin Citroen +4:01.6
Itinerary (CET)
Thursday, February 15th 09:01 Shakedown: Håkmark (5.42 km) 19:05 SS1: Umeå Sprint 1 (5.16 km) Friday, February 16th 08:58 SS2: #42 Brattby 1 (10.76 km) 09:52 SS3: Norrby 1 (12.36 km) 10:55 SS4: Floda 1 (28.25 km) 13:28 Service (30 min) 14:36 SS5: #42 Brattby 2 (10.76 km) 15:30 SS6: Norrby 2 (12.36 km) 16:33 SS7: Floda 2 (28.25 km) 19:05 SS8: Umeå Sprint 2 (5.16 km) Saturday, February 17th 07:45 SS9: Vännäs 1 (15.65 km) 08:35 SS10: Sarsjöliden 1 (14.23 km) 10:08 SS11: Bygdsiljum 1 (28.06 km) 13:00 Service (30 min) 14:15 SS12: Vännäs 2 (15.65 km) 15:05 SS13: Sarsjöliden 2 (14.23 km) 16:38 SS14: Bygdsiljum 2 (28.06 km) 19:05 SS15: Umeå 1 (10.08 km) Sunday, February 18th 07:27 SS16: Västervik 1 (25.50 km) 09:06 Service (15 min) 10:03 SS17: Västervik 2 (25.50 km) 12:15 SS18: Umeå 2 (10.08 km) *Power Stage
