Takamoto Katsuta explains the reason behind his retirement at the end of Stage 2 despite his hard efforts to fix his Yaris for the rest of the Friday morning loop.
The Japanese driver was in fifth place overall after the end of Stage 2, but he carried an alternator warning light on his dashboard since SS1 and left immediately from the stop control of SS2 without answering to the journalist's questions. He tried to repair the damaged alternatoρ on the road section before SS3, but Toyota announced his retirement for the rest of Friday as the damage was too extensive and he was already eight-minute delayed at the arrival control for the final stage of the morning. It is tipped that he and Aaron Johnston will restart on Saturday under the regulations of Rally2 and they will be the first car on the road tomorrow.
"Basically we had to stop before stage three because we had an issue on the mechanical side, basically alternator is not working actually since stage one and we were trying to manage it as much as we can, but at the end just suddenly everything stopped", Katsuta said.
"On the stage also it’s not so easy and I was saving brakes and everything, but stage times were good, car was working well and I was very happy with the car.
"So it’s a shame".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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