Katsuta was still in the fight for victory after Saturday morning’s loop, but the first stage of the afternoon – the 21.74-kilometre-long Mt. Kasagi – proved to be his downfall. Katsuta hit trouble several times in the spectator area located at the beginning of the special stage.
First, Katsuta approached the section built with artificial obstacles far too quickly, and the rear of the car struck the barrier heavily. The car then plunged into the area filled with water obstacles. The front of the car suffered the worst damage when Katsuta drove through the barriers to get back onto the main route.
Watch the videos of Katsuta’s collision below.
Katsuta lost more than four minutes to the leaders on stage 11 due to a power steering failure. At that point, it became clear that the Japanese driver could no longer fight for a top result in his home rally. Katsuta and his co-driver Aaron Johnston managed to repair the car during the road section, but they arrived 34 minutes late for the start of the next stage, which resulted in a time penalty of five minutes and 40 seconds.
Because of their problems, Katsuta and Johnston dropped to 15th place, nearly 11 minutes off the lead. In 2023, Katsuta finished third in his home rally, and he had also made it into the top five in the two previous seasons.
Rally Japan still has one short spectator stage remaining on Saturday. The rally concludes on Sunday, with six more special stages scheduled.
