Katsuta's NZ crash was due to his losing the braking point in SS12

Takamoto Katsuta explains his crash in Stage 12 of Rally New Zealand, but he believes that this is a learning process and is not being disappointed with his mistake.

The Japanese driver was in fifth place and moved ahead of Oliver Solberg at the end of Stage 11 as the last one's car suffered from a misfire, but Taka went off the road 7.8 Km after the start of SS12 as he missed the braking point on a tight left-hander and his Yaris was off down a hillside.

However, he managed to get going again and dropped more than 10 minutes in Stages 12 and 13, but Toyota confirmed today that Katsuta will not restart on the final day of Rally New Zealand as his Yaris is heavily damaged.

"This afternoon I was trying to push more because I was lacking pace and I was not committed enough this morning and yesterday", Katsuta said.

"Finally I was starting to feel a bit comfortable and started to feel the good feeling from pacenotes, driving and the car as well so I felt pretty good after the first one in the afternoon.

"On the second one at the beginning of the stage I felt good again so I tried to push more and there was a very fast right-hand corner and then you have 40 meter braking and a tight left corner.

"But basically on this fast right corner I was trying to go as fast as I can and I was maybe too focused on this corner, and when I hear that the next corner, the next information, was braking 40 I was not ready to brake and at the same time, I was pushing a lot for this right-hand corner so I was a bit sliding and the car was not ready for braking.

"So then I was a bit late with my braking and I couldn’t make the tight left corner.

"It was very, very mixed conditions which is good for me because it’s kind of one of the learnings also, so this kind of situation I was not anywhere fighting, I was just trying to try how I can improve and what I can see as my next step or anything.

"OK at the end I crashed which is not good, but still I’m not too, too disappointed because I was able to still see a few things".

Source: DirtFish.com

Photo Credits: Toyota