The first WRC round to be held in Japan since 2010 presented a totally new challenge taking place on demanding, twisty asphalt roads in the mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures. Although these could be considered local roads for Katsuta – who was born in nearby Nagoya – the majority of the stages were new for him just as they were for his rivals. It was also only the second time he had competed in Japan since the end of 2016, after moving to Europe to further his career as part of the Challenge Program.

The unique demands of the roads proved highly challenging for all of the drivers already on Friday morning, but Katsuta soon built his confidence and speed to set competitive top-five stage times among the frontrunners. He and co-driver Aaron Johnston ended the first proper day of stages in fifth overall, just over 20 seconds away from the lead.

As more drivers were caught out on the narrow stages, Katsuta moved up into fourth place in Saturday’s first stage and tried to keep the pressure on in the fight for a podium place over the rest of the day.

With a long and challenging final loop of stages still to come on Sunday, Katsuta’s consistent driving and ability to avoid major issues was then rewarded when he gained third place in the morning’s second test. However, he still faced a tough conclusion to the rally when heavy rain fell for the final two stages, but Katsuta superbly steered his way through the treacherous conditions to seal third place by 12.3s ahead of team-mate Sébastien Ogier.

The result is the third podium of Katsuta’s WRC career and his second of 2022 together with Johnston, after they also finished third at Safari Rally Kenya in June. He has been the championship’s most consistent driver this season, finishing all but one of the 13 rounds inside the top eight positions and ending up fifth in the final standings with 122 points.

Quotes:
Takamoto Katsuta:“It is a very special feeling to be on the podium in my home country. I need to say a huge thanks to the team and to the many fans who were supporting us and cheering for us everywhere – on the stages and also on the road sections. It was a really tough weekend with very tricky stages, and the grip level was changing a lot. At first I was struggling a bit with the feeling but on Friday lunchtime we changed the setup with the team and it went in a very good direction, so I had a more comfortable feeling and the times were pretty good. We had some very difficult conditions at the end of the rally especially, but we were able to survive. Thank you to Aaron and also to our gravel crew, Juho Hänninen and Craig Parry, who did a great job supporting us with information for the pacenotes.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team Principal):“The target with Takamoto this year was to have two podium finishes and I’m really happy that he could get the second one here on home soil at Rally Japan. It’s such an important achievement for him and for Toyota. Unfortunately we couldn’t win the event but to have Taka on the podium at home feels almost just as good. He’s been really consistent over this season, probably the most consistent driver in the field, and he did another really good drive here this weekend. He set some very strong stage times and when other drivers had problems he was able to move up into the podium positions. Then as the weather changed at the end and brought very difficult conditions, he was still able to maintain the position. So it was another very clever drive from him.”