On the final day of Rally Kenya on Sunday, Katsuta made a driving error and rolled his Toyota onto its roof right at the start of the Power Stage. He managed to reach the finish, but the damage was already done.
Katsuta’s car sustained such significant damage that the Japanese driver was unable to get it back to parc fermé. The result was a retirement, and at the same time, Toyota lost out on valuable points in the manufacturers’ championship battle.
This wasn’t the first mistake of its kind. Katsuta was already benched once last season, and later during Rally Sweden, the Japanese driver revealed that his seat for this season hadn’t been confirmed until just before the season finale in Japan.
There, however, Katsuta performed decently and once again played a role in helping Toyota secure the manufacturers’ title. At the beginning of this year, Toyota announced that Katsuta would continue as one of the team’s drivers this season.
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala didn’t place the blame on Katsuta.
“The one thing I want to make clear,” Latvala began in an interview with DirtFish.
“Is that he had [a] free hand to push on the last stage – that was from the team. The team had given him permission to push. It didn’t go [to plan], it didn’t work. But nobody can blame [him] because he had the right to push,” Latvala continued.
Before the fateful crash, Katsuta had been showing good pace in Kenya. At the time of the incident, the Japanese driver was running fourth in the rally. Naturally, Katsuta was still pushing hard in the Power Stage to try to secure the maximum number of points for the team on Sunday.
““It wasn’t bad, It wasn’t a bad event at all for him. Of course, we believed that he could help us on that Sunday. He was in a strong position before the powerstage and we knew he could win that,” Latvala pointed out.
Latvala stated openly that the whole thing was entirely the team’s responsibility. Toyota took a risk, but this time it didn’t pay off.
“We knew the value of the points from the powerstage and the Sunday. It’s a risk assessment, we decided to take that risk and this time it didn’t pay off,” Latvala gave his absolution.
Katsuta performed excellently in the season’s second round in Sweden and was in the fight for victory until the end. In the end, Katsuta had to settle for second place, while teammate Elfyn Evans celebrated the win. In the season opener in Monte Carlo, Katsuta’s rally also ended in a retirement after an off on the final day, so his tally from the first three rallies of the season stands at two retirements and one second-place finish.
Latvala himself wasn’t present in Kenya and won’t be in the Canary Islands either. This year, alongside his duties as team principal, Latvala is focusing on the Historic Rally European Championship together with his co-driver Janni Hussi. In Latvala’s absence, four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen serves as acting team principal for Toyota.
All in all, Toyota’s season has got off to a brilliant start. Toyota has three wins from the first three events of the season, while main rival Hyundai still has nothing in the win column.
The World Rally Championship season continues with Rally Islas Canarias on 24–27 April.
