SAKON YAMAMOTO

is a Japanese Formula One racing driver, currently with the Spyker team.

Contents

Before Formula One

Formula One

At Super Aguri F1

At Spyker F1

Complete Formula One results

References

External links

Before Formula One

Yamamoto began his racing career in 1994 at the Suzuka Circuit Racing School (Karting), and worked his way up through the ranks, to become the test/third driver for the Jordan Formula One team for one weekend (Japan) during the 2005 Formula One season.

Formula One

At Super Aguri F1

On June 8, 2006, Sakon Yamamoto joined the Super Aguri F1 team as their test driver and third driver on grand prix weekends, helping Takuma Sato and Franck Montagny in Friday's free practice sessions. Yamamoto replaced Montagny in the second team car at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim. He did not enjoy a particularly successful start to his career, however, with a mechanical failure and a stalled engine restricting him to a total of one lap in his first two races. He also damaged one of the team's new SA06 chassis in a crash during Free Practice at the German Grand Prix. He then spun out of his third Grand Prix in Turkey, a disappointment after outqualifying Sato for the first time.
At the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Yamamoto had a major effect on the championship after suffering a tire delamination during qualifying, which consigned him to last place on the grid. Later on in the session, Fernando Alonso punctured a tyre on debris from this incident, an occurrence which would eventually result in the points leader being penalised for blocking Felipe Massa and dropping from fifth to tenth on the grid. During the race, Yamamoto suffered hydraulic problems and had to start from the pit lane, eventually retiring when it became terminal. At the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix, however, he finished for the first time, albeit four laps down in sixteenth place. After the race, his enjoyment was spoiled when Nick Heidfeld admonished him for an incident on the last lap which had dropped the German from 4th to 7th place. However, Heidfeld had mistaken Yamamoto for Sato, the driver who caused the incident, and apologised for his mistake before the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix.^[1]
Yamamoto finished the season strongly with three consecutive finishes, an upturn in form after retiring from his first four Grands Prix. He also set the seventh fastest lap during the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix.^[2] However, this was not enough to prevent him losing out to Anthony Davidson in the race for the second Super Aguri race drive in 2007. However, he remained as a test driver at Super Aguri.^[3] This was combined with him competing in the 2007 GP2 Series season with BCN Competicion.^[4]

At Spyker F1

With the departure of Christijan Albers from the Spyker F1 team after the 2007 British Grand Prix, a position on the grid became available. On 26 July 2007, after Markus Winkelhock filled the seat at the event-filled 2007 European Grand Prix, Spyker confirmed that they hired Yamamoto from Super Aguri for the remainder of the 2007 Formula One season by Spyker.^[5] It has yet to be seen if he can do better than the racers that preceded him, but during his maiden Grand Prix at Hungary, he crashed out on lap 4.

Complete Formula One results

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Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2005	Jordan Grand Prix	Jordan EJ15B	Toyota V10	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	BRA	JPN TD	CHN	-	-
2006	Super Aguri F1	Super Aguri SA05	Honda V8	BHR	MAL	AUS	SMR	EUR	ESP	MON	GBR TD	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA TD									26th	0
		Super Aguri SA06													GER Ret	HUN Ret	TUR Ret	ITA Ret	CHN 16	JPN 17	BRA 16
2007	Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team	Spyker F8-VII	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS	MAL	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	EUR	HUN Ret	TUR 20								24th	0 ★
		Spyker F8-VIIB														ITA 20	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA

==GP2 Series Record==

Season	Team name	No.	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final placing
2007	BCN Competicion	18	11	0	0	0	28th ★

''
★ ''Season in progress.

References

1. ITV.com article, retrieved October 7, 2006
2. Formula1.com data, retrieved October 23 2006
3. Super Aguri names Sakon Yamamoto as second test driver
4. Yamamoto for BCN
5. Spyker confirm Yamamoto deal

External links

★ Sakon Yamamoto Official Website (Japanese)

★ Sakon Yamamoto Racing Profile at the Formula Nippon Official Website

★ Sakon Yamamoto profile and 2006 statistics