Katsuta eventually finished fifth overall. On top of that, he delivered a fairly strong Sunday performance and was on course to claim one Super Sunday point – until he chose to hand that point to his teammate Elfyn Evans.
Katsuta slightly eased off the throttle to let Evans pass him, allowing the Welshman to collect an extra championship point on Sunday. Every point matters, but at this stage, the point arguably meant more for Evans than it did for Katsuta.
After the rally, Katsuta made it clear there was no drama behind the gesture.
“It’s not a team order – just my decision,” Katsuta explained.
“It’s like, one point is important, of course, but for me at the moment, one point less can help my road position at some point, probably. But at the end of the season, one point is very important for everything as well,” he pondered.
“But there was nothing around me, no discussion – just I decided myself, and it was clear,” he added.
Katsuta got off to a strong start in the rally and was fighting near the front early on, but his pace gradually faded as the event progressed. He made it clear that the final result was a disappointment.
“Nice to finish, even without… Fifth place is not what I wanted this weekend, but yeah. Some positives, some negatives. We need to run, definitely, this new tyre to get more – better – performance,” Katsuta said.
“Overall it was a very demanding and tough weekend. Of course, I’m never happy until you’re the fastest in this category. But of course, there’s a lot of things to learn, and I need to be happy at some point.”
Katsuta had his fair share of incidents in Portugal. One of them happened just before the rally-ending Fafe Power Stage, when he hit a bank and spun on the penultimate stage.
“The spin was a very strange thing. There was a big rock on the line. I just came to the hairpin, then somehow the front wheel hit the really big rock, then just hooked – it started to spin. So nothing I could do. I mean, it was there anyway. And luckily, it didn’t happen to Kalle, so it was quite lucky,” Katsuta recounted.
In Portugal, Katsuta showed he’s a true team player. Clearing rocks is also part of that role.
“Yeah, I took this big rock for all the other guys, so it was okay!” Katsuta laughed.
