The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, impressed by Takamoto Katsuta's performance at Rally Japan admitting that his driver showed the potential and the speed he has.
The Japanese man was the fastest driver on the splits in Stage 2 until the time he spun his Yaris 11.8 Km into SS2 resulting in damaging the front end of his car and arriving to the finish of the stage in EV mode. He tried to repair the radiator damage on the road section before the start of Stage 3, but it was impossible to fix his Toyota for SS3 and received a 70-second time penalty for checking late at TC3 control. He stayed out of trouble for the rest of the weekend and tried to beat Esapekka Lappi for the fourth place, but eventually he finished at the top five on his home event after his having touched a barrier in Stage 19. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that he had the pace to fight for the top positions since he won ten from 22 stages at Rally Japan which means that he claimed the most stage wins compared to his rivals.
"It was great to see Taka fighting back to fifth position after his unfortunate incident on Friday", Latvala said.
"He never gave up and kept fighting until the last day.
"Speed-wise I think it was the best performance we have seen from him and it demonstrates the potential he has.
"He showed he can win multiple stages in a row and be consistently quick, which is really promising.
"Overall, he has done really good steps this year.
"The beginning of the season was tough for him but in the second half of the year his confidence has been growing and that’s encouraging for us".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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