{"id":703747,"date":"2026-05-30T06:27:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703747\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T06:27:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:27:03","slug":"takamoto-katsuta-explains-factors-behind-his-worst-day-of-the-2026-wrc-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/703747\/","title":{"rendered":"Takamoto Katsuta explains factors behind his \u201cworst day” of the 2026 WRC season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Takamoto Katsuta<\/a> says extra pressure around his home round of the World Rally Championship was not the reason for what he labelled as his \u201cworst day of the season so far\u201d.<\/p>\n

Winning Rally Japan has long been a key objective for the Toyota driver and this year expectation had risen after Katsuta delivered a maiden WRC win in Kenya, which was followed up by a second success in Croatia.<\/p>\n

However, Katsuta\u2019s victory hopes began to unravel in the damp opening stage when he ran wide and clipped a bank, causing a left rear puncture. While the puncture only cost 6.7s in the stage, being forced to replace it with a hard tyre for the following two damp stages contributed to more time lost. Katsuta was then lucky to survive an off in stage three that put his GR Yaris onto the grass and left him 43.8s from the lead at midday service.<\/p>\n

In a bid to try and gain back time, Katsuta opted for a soft\/hard tyre mix hoping the stages would continue to have damp sections, but unfortunately it didn\u2019t pay off. The 32-year-old ended Friday in sixth 1m03.6s from the lead.<\/p>\n

Katsuta was quick to dismiss any suggestions that the pressure to win had impacted his driving. Instead, he cited the lack of information about the conditions from his route note crew that had passed through the stages earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Takamoto <\/p>\n

Takamoto Katsuta, Aaron Johnston, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1<\/p>\n

Photo by: Toyota Racing<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many things [went wrong],\u201d said Katsuta. \u201cStraight away in stage one it started with a puncture and then we went in the wrong direction. I lost a soft tyre and I had to use a hard tyre in the second stage, which was quite wet and everything went wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it is like this and it is the worst day of the season so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously there is a lot of pressure but this is not the reason [for] what happened in the morning, it is clear that there was some miscommunication with the\u00a0pacenotes and this is the main reason. So, the pressure on my shoulders doesn\u2019t matter. The pressure is always there so I don\u2019t think this is the main issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two days to go so I need to come back stronger, I cannot be like this today. I\u2019m very disappointed.”<\/p>\n

\"Jari-Matti <\/p>\n

Jari-Matti Latvala, Toyota team principal<\/p>\n

Photo by: Toyota Racing<\/p>\n

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala<\/a> suggested that his driver may have been overdoing it in certain areas to try and win this rally. Latvala is well versed in this situation when striving to win his home WRC round in Finland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see that he has won two rallies this year and he comes to the event and he wants to win this event more than anything,\u201d said Latvala.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a talk with him during lunchtime and he said he did everything he could to prepare and everything he can do. But sometimes you start to overdo it, and I think it is a case where you are not relaxed any more and you do not have the natural way of driving. You start thinking about everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had the same problem in Finland. I told him today it took Juha Kankkunen 10 years to win Rally Finland. You take the pressure of the home event so much before you learn to deal with that kind of pressure. I think it was the matter of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

When asked to address Katsuta\u2019s concerns over lack of information from his route note crew, Latvala added: \u201cYesterday\u2019s rain meant there was moisture on the ground and we had a meeting and we knew it would dry out but we couldn\u2019t say exactly how much it would dry out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it comes to the situation of the route note crew that goes through the stage before, and they have information, but still there is evolution of the stage with that [before the driver enters the stage].<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some places it is drier but then you have to look with your eyes. I don\u2019t know exactly where he had the moment [in stage one], so did most of the drivers have that in their information, I don\u2019t know? We will have to look into it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit like Monte Carlo, you have to look at the road conditions yourself. Of course, it is not easy to do and it is a human thing. And it also can be that the route note crew didn\u2019t find it [that damp patch] but you have to have a fine balance with it, between what you can drive, and what you can see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from Rally Japan – Day 1<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Takamoto<\/p>\n


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\n Japan – Shakedown & Day 1, in photos
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\"Atmosphere\"\/<\/p>\n


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\n Japan – Shakedown & Day 1, in photos
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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Takamoto Katsuta says extra pressure around his home round of the World Rally Championship was not the reason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,941,806,805,803,804,342190,85,342570,342569,32478,10277],"class_list":["post-703747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-japan","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-rally-japan","tag-sports","tag-takamoto-katsuta","tag-takamoto-katsuta-explains-factors-behind-his-u201cworst-day-of-the-2026-wrc-season","tag-toyota-racing","tag-wrc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}