The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that the team takes the responsibility for Takamoto Katsuta's crash as he was free to push for more manufacturer points.
The Japanese driver was in fourth position overall and second on the SuperSunday classification at the end of Stage 20, but the most important is that he was just 0,3 seconds behind Adrien Fourmaux on SuperSunday. However, he rolled his Yaris near the start of Powerstage and was able to continue after that thanks to the spectators who helped him and Aaron Johnston. The pair were unable to return back to the service park as their Yaris were heavily damaged, therefore they retired after Powerstage. This meant that Toyota collected only points from Elfyn Evans as Kalle Rovanpera retired at the end of Stage 17 with electrical issues, but it must be mentioned that Hyundai cut Toyota's lead by 22 points at the end of Safari Rally Kenya.
"The one thing I want to make clear is that he had a free hand to push on the last stage – that was from the team, Latvala said.
"The team had given him permission to push.
"It didn’t go to plan, it didn’t work.
"But nobody can blame him because he had the right to push.
"It wasn’t bad, It wasn’t a bad event at all for him.
"Of course, we believed that he could help us on that Sunday.
"He was in a strong position before the powerstage and we knew he could win that.
"We knew the value of the points from the powerstage and the Sunday.
"It’s a risk assessment, we decided to take that risk and this time it didn’t pay off".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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