Problem for Yamamoto in front of home crowd

Warm temperatures and dry conditions were welcomed by fans all around the Suzuka Circuit today. However, on track, the SUPER AGURI F1 TEAM had a difficult day. Sakon Yamamoto experienced a power steering issue which limited his running during the morning’s Free Practice session and then a spin just before the Hairpin ended his Qualifying prematurely.

Takuma Sato had a more promising morning, however his SA06 was lacking in pace compared to the rest of the field who showed impressive form around this unique circuit during Qualifying.

“We were quite happy with our progress during the morning’s free practice session and felt prepared for Qualifying this afternoon. However, during Qualifying, we were just not quick enough, so I am quite disappointed. We shall now just have to see what happens tomorrow and hope that we have a strong package for the race.”

“After this morning’s practice session and at the start of Qualifying I had a really good feeling about the car. I tried my best and pushed hard during Qualifying, but unfortunately I made a mistake at the Hairpin and the engine stopped. It is a real shame because I know that the engineers and the boys have worked extremely hard for this race, but I have a very good reason to be positive about the race tomorrow.”

“We pushed hard to develop our car for this race and have brought many new aero developments to Suzuka. I want to thank everyone in the team for all of their hard work, but we need to improve greatly on our car performance because it is still not enough. Taku and the boys did a great job today and it is unfortunate that Sakon stalled during Qualifying. Looking forward to tomorrow, we will give it 110% and hope that we have a good race here at Suzuka.”