Takamoto Katsuta doesn't regret pushing to win, but wished he'd approached it differently
Photography by Toyota
Words by Luke Barry & David Evans
The weight of disappointment lay firmly on his shoulders. In his eyes, he’d not just let himself down, or his team down. He’d let an entire nation down.
“Actually, I was quite confident before the rally already, and everything went quite well,” he said, “It’s very tough of course. I really wanted to deliver the best result ever.”
Takamoto Katsuta wears his heart on his sleeve. At stage-ends, you can tell when he’s not happy due to his quiet demeanor. In last Saturday night’s media zone at Rally Japan, you didn’t need to be an expert in body language to read Katsuta’s emotions.
Fighting for the win of his home event with Toyota team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans, Katsuta approached a section of Mt. Kasagi 2 too quickly, lost the rear and hit an adjacent plastic barrier that, crucially, was filled with water. That damaged his radiator, broke his power-steering and forced him out of the results for the day as he went OTL working on the car.
It looked as if a second barrier hit, when Katsuta rejoined the stage, was what really did the damage, but the data confirmed it was the first impact that was problematic – offering a small silver-lining for the Japanese.
Katsuta wasn't interested in a podium last week - the win was his only target
Reflecting on the events of the weekend, Katsuta admitted he had no regrets in trying to win Japan instead of accepting another podium finish, but feels he pushed too much in the wrong places.
Katsuta told DirtFish: “I was too much focusing to try to get a win. If I accept it, OK, now I go for podium. for sure 100% I stay there, nothing happened but I wanted… I’m not saying that I made a mistake or decision or anything because I wanted to win, but this kind of moment is maybe a bit like what Séb and Elfyn can do is they are always fighting on top top, yes. But they can see some stage and balance that.
“Of course trying push, but not too crazy every single stage, more like finding ‘OK this stage see how it’s going with everybody, the next one, next one, maybe I push if he’s going like this or more like controlling’. But what I did this time was ‘now I need to push every stage’ or something like this and then small, small mistake cost a lot.
“So I just need to keep pushing, of course, but finding the right timing to not do this kind of small mistake again. This is one of the most important thing I need to do, in my opinion.”
Katsuta still looked burdened even a day after the rally, when he was unveiled as a Toyota Gazoo Racing driver for another season on Monday.
Getting over this result will take time for Katsuta, but he at least has Saudi Arabia to end the year strongly
He said “it’s not easy” to get over “because I have so much disappointment myself and feel so bad and so sorry for all the fans”.
But he also pointed out “this makes nothing for future”.
Katsuta explained: “I just need to move forward. Luckily, we have one more rally in this season. So, I have now free focus for Saudi [Arabia] now and just do my best to do the best result there as well.
“Of course [I am] disappointed. So sad, but I just keep pushing and try my best to get a good result in Saudi. Nothing else.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally Japan, Rally Japan 2025, Takamoto Katsuta, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date November 14, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/11/zpcKpkO2-KATSUTA13JPN25TB436-780x520.jpg November 14, 2025
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