Rally Portugal 2022

[Danny0405]

... what over a decade extra top level experience and 140 extra WRC starts means. One driver is Next Generation and one is retiring.

2.1 seconds is the difference between an average result and a lesson in delivering results? Very harsh.

First Rallye for Sordo in the hybrid car and he was clearly rusty; for the Spaniard, it was clearly more preparation for Sardinia.
Katsuta was globally faster than him during the weekend (13 stages above for the Japanese I think).
And Katsuta is not a pure newbie now: more than 40 starts in WRC including more than 20 in RC1, more than 70 starts outside Japan.
So yes it’s harsh but Sordo teaches him what is needed to be a manufacturer driver and to deliver a result (for sure experience matters but when competing for a seat, you must beat old drivers at on moment). At that time of his career, Katsuta must win that type of fight if he wants to deserve a spot in the main team; he might achieve it even without deserving it as he is Japanese but it would not give something good in terms of result.