Difficult race for Super Aguri

The Super Aguri F1 team faced further challenges in Turkey today. Takuma Sato made a great race start but received substantial damage from being hit in the rear. He returned to the pit where the SAF1 Team mechanics repaired his SA06 enabling him to rejoin the race, albeit 16 laps down. Sakon Yamamoto made a solid race start but unfortunately a spin at turn one caused him to stop off the track and bring his race to an end on lap 23.

“It has been another challenging weekend for the team. Obviously we knew that if we took the decision to bring the new suspension here we would have completed very little running before Qualifying and the race. But I think that, considering our chassis related problems yesterday, we have managed well this weekend. At the start of the race I overtook at least two or three cars going through to turn one. Unfortunately somebody ran into the back of my car, so I took quite a lot of damage to the chassis and the rear tyre and came back to the pit. Quite a few laps down we got back out on to the track after the mechanics did a fantastic job in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately the car wasn't fully repaired, so I struggled a lot for the rest of the race, but at least we have collected some very important data for the new suspension. We will bring this car to Monza for the test next week and hopefully we are able to have a good race at the next Grand Prix.”

“I'm disappointed that I couldn't finish the race, because I really wanted to finish here in Turkey. After a successful start, when I avoided the incident at turn one, I made up several places and continued to push and have a good fight with the Midland’s and Toro Rosso’s. But unfortunately later on I spun and the engine stopped which ended my race. We will test in Monza next week and continue to improve the SA06. As I have not been able to finish a race yet, I am already looking forward to the Italian Grand Prix.”

“It was not a good race for us today. Right at the beginning Taku was a victim of the accident at turn one but the mechanics did a great job fixing his car. Although several laps down when he rejoined the race, Taku went on to collect some valuable data until he crossed the finish line. Sakon made a good race start and managed to avoid the initial incident. It was due to inexperience that he made a mistake at the first corner later on and spun out of the race. However, it was very important to him and the team that he completed these laps and we now look forward to developing the SA06 further in Monza next week.”