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Sakon Yamamoto Nationality Japanese Formula One World Championship career Active years 2006–2007 Teams Super Aguri, Spyker Races 14 Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Career points 0 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First race 2006 German Grand Prix Last race 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix 2007 position 24th (0 pts) Sakon Yamamoto Previous series 2007–08 2006–07 2005–06 2005–06 2003 2002 2001, 2004 2001 GP2 Series Formula One Super GT Formula Nippon F3 Euroseries German F3 All-Japan F3 British F3

Sakon Yamamoto (山本 左近, Yamamoto Sakon^?, born July 9, 1982 in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture) is a Japanese racing driver. He competed in 14 Formula One Grands Prix during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

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

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 tyre 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.

Yamamoto driving for Super Aguri during 2006.

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 and second fastest middle sector 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]

Spyker F1

Yamamoto driving for Spyker F1 at the 2007 Italian Grand Prix.

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] During his first Grand Prix for Spyker at Hungary, he crashed out on lap 4. After that, he finished all the races in last position, except the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, where he finished ahead of Jarno Trulli, and in the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix where Giancarlo Fisichella crashed into him on the first laps. After the season ended, Yamamoto didn't participate in any other event for the team.

Renault F1

It was announced on February 4, 2008 that Sakon would be one of the test drivers for the Renault F1 Team^[6]. But according to the press release, looks like he will only drive the car in public demonstrations and not in circuit tests, considering Lucas di Grassi and Romain Grosjean were announced at the launch of the Renault R28 while Sakon was announced a week later. Sanho Human Service sponsored Spyker F1 when Yamamoto was announced as a driver, and it was announced on the R28 launch that Sanho Human Service would sponsor Renault. Sanho being Yamamoto's personal sponsor.

Return to GP2

Yamamoto made his return to the GP2 series halfway through the 2008 season, as the ART Grand Prix team elected to employ him in place of the underperforming Luca Filippi.^[7] Finishing 4th in the sprint race at Hungaroring, he scored his first ever points in any racing class outside Japan.

Yamamoto has kept his seat at ART for the 2008-2009 GP2 Asia Series where he will be looking to emulate the success of Grosjean, who won the inaugural championship with the team. However, he was somewhat overshadowed by team-mates Nico Hülkenberg and Pastor Maldonado, but managed to finish 9th in the championship, with a podium at the opening race in Shanghai.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

• Sakon Yamamoto Official Website (Japanese)
• Sakon Yamamoto Racing Profile at the Formula Nippon Official Website
• Sakon Yamamoto profile and 2006 statistics

Spyker F1 Personnel: Michiel Mol | Colin Kolles | James Key | Mike Gascoyne Drivers: Adrian Sutil | Christijan Albers | Sakon Yamamoto | Markus Winkelhock Formula One cars: F8-VII