TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program
Katsuta shows his strength again in Portugal
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program driver Takamoto Katsuta produced another strong performance on the Rally de Portugal, fighting for victory again in the WRC 2 category before a broken wheel ended his chances of a strong result.
Rally de Portugal takes place on fast and technical roads with a sandy gravel surface. Hot and dry weather meant the stages this year were particularly rough in places, and crews also had to contend with hanging dust thrown up by the cars in front. Katsuta, driving a Ford Fiesta R5 with Daniel Barritt as his co-driver, was making his third appearance on the rally, which this year featured a new set of stages on the Friday in the Arganil area last visited 18 years ago. He arrived in Portugal off the back of a WRC 2 win on the last round in Chile, as well as victory in the Toyota Yaris WRC on the Riihimäki Ralli just a few days earlier.
Katsuta was among the class frontrunners from the start in Portugal, moving up to second place with a fastest time in SS3. He was only 6.9 seconds away from the lead when a got a puncture in SS6 and lost around 46 seconds. On the longest day of the rally on Saturday, Katsuta was staying out of trouble and climbed back up from fifth to second in class, before a wheel rim broke in SS12 and he had to retire from the day. Upon restarting on Sunday, he showed impressive speed, winning four of the stages and coming second in the other. He was the fastest R5 driver in the Power Stage over the famous Fafe test.
Jarkko Miettinen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program instructor):
“This was strong race from Taka and Dan. They were competitive from the start and did not make any mistakes during the weekend. Our target was to get a win here, which was looking possible until they had to retire from due to the broken rim. I feel now that the pieces are falling into place in Taka’s driving, and his overall view of a WRC weekend. We have worked with him on small areas of his driving technique during the spring, and here his driving looked very good.”
WRC 2 Results:
1 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Vincent Landais (Skoda Fabia R5) 3h33m09.1s
2 Emil Bergkvist/Patrik Barth (Ford Fiesta R5) +1m42.1s
3 Henning Solberg/Ilkor Minor (Skoda Fabia R5) +2m08.2s
4 Eerik Pietarinen/Juhana Raitanen (Skoda Fabia R5) +2m23.5s
5 Nikolay Gryazin/Yaroslav Fedorov (Skoda Fabia R5) +2m24.3s
13 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta R5) +14m18.5s
What’s next?
Katsuta will be back in WRC 2 action on June 13-16 on the next round in Sardinia. Rally Italia Sardegna is another sandy gravel event usually run in hot and dry conditions, but with narrow stages where exposed rocks and trees at the sides of the road can catch out the unwary.
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Quotes:
Takamoto Katsuta:
“Generally, I’m pretty happy about my speed this weekend. I have improved a lot on this rally compared to last year, so this is very positive. I wasn’t pushing too hard, I was just avoiding mistakes and driving clean. The broken wheel was a big disappointment for me because I was trying to avoid every single rock, so I don’t know why it happened. But we had a lot of positive things this weekend. The final day was very good. I tried to keep a good rhythm and I think that’s why the times were strong. I’m continuing to improve my driving style and I’m quite sure that I can be faster in the future.”