After Friday’s leg in Japan, Katsuta holds second place, trailing his teammate Sébastien Ogier by only 7.9 seconds. Behind him, another Toyota teammate, Elfyn Evans, is just 2.3 seconds adrift of the Japanese driver.
“It’s nice to be in second place after a day like this. Things could be worse — or better, of course. The feeling went up and down throughout the day. On some stages, I was very happy with the car, but on others, for some reason, I struggled a bit. We need to look into that with the team,” Katsuta summed up.
“On the Isegami’s Tunnel stage, Seb drove better and maybe took more risks since he’s fighting for the championship. He gained quite a bit of time there. But the rally is long, and Sunday looks especially difficult, as the weather won’t be as good,” Katsuta added, referring to the rain forecast for Sunday.
Katsuta has stood on the podium seven times in his career, but that elusive first victory is still missing. One thing is certain: he’s determined to fight for it to the end. With the manufacturers’ championship already decided at the previous round, there’s no extra pressure.
“I can push even harder, but tomorrow I’ll still need to find a good balance between risk and safety. The stages are a bit different. They’re still tricky, but the asphalt surface is slightly different,” Katsuta said.
“I can’t really say yet how this car and the new tyres will perform on that surface. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”
