This year the Safari Rally served up even tougher conditions for the cars and drivers than the 2021 edition, when it returned to the WRC calendar. This included greater amounts of deep ‘fesh-fesh’ or fine dust, which can be extremely difficult to navigate. It was particularly present in Friday’s Kedong stage, which was also the longest of the rally, but Katsuta avoided any problems and reached the end of the day in second place overall after setting three second-fastest stage times during the day.

On Saturday morning he was passed by team-mate Elfyn Evans and lost some time because of punctures – a common threat on the rock-strewn stages. Rain then made conditions extremely difficult for the afternoon’s final two stages, creating lots of mud and standing water, but Katsuta was able to survive and hold onto third position overall. He continued to maintain the place through Sunday’s final day, forming part of a historic 1-2-3-4 result for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing. For co-driver Aaron Johnston, who began working with Katsuta late last season, it was a maiden WRC podium finish. With the result, Katsuta moves up to joint third in the drivers’ championship.

Quotes:
Takamoto Katsuta:“This was such a tough weekend. There were so many rocks to avoid and sometimes we had some issues because of that, but the car was so strong and this was why we were able to achieve this result. The team has done an incredible job to develop the car, so thank you so much to them. The weather also made the conditions incredibly difficult on Saturday afternoon, when it was so hard to know where the grip was in the mud. But we were able to get through it. To be part of this result for Toyota is very nice for me, and I’m also really happy that Aaron could score his first podium. Thank you to him too because he is giving me huge support.”

Juho Hänninen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program instructor):“Taka did very well again in Kenya, just as he did last year. He was quite unlucky on Saturday with the punctures, but at the same time his approach to the conditions was really, really mature. He took all of the rough parts steadily and pushed when the conditions were better, and this is crucial to a good result on this rally. We are really happy to see him back on the podium, especially after he came so close in Portugal, and also for Aaron’s first podium because he has played a really big role in these results.”