German GP: Super Aguri Saturday qualifying notes

Super Aguri F1 Team enjoyed their best day yet as Takuma Sato out-qualified their nearest rivals by 0.651 seconds in his new SA06 to start the 2006 German Grand Prix in 17th position tomorrow. Sakon Yamamoto, the youngest Japanese driver to debut in F1, showed impressive handling of the new car during the first half of final free practice this morning.

Unfortunately, whilst familiarising himself with the limits of the SA06, Sakon left the track at the last corner of a flying lap and, after hitting the wall, was forced to qualify in the T-car this afternoon.

Takuma Sato:

"This was an absolutely fantastic team effort and it feels great. I know how hard it has been to bring the new car here on such a tight schedule and overnight the boys worked so hard. We had a few minor problems, which is usual with a new car, but I think the SA06 is performing very well."

"We have split the Midland car times straight away in our first proper qualifying, which is a stunning job from everybody in the team. I think that, considering this is just our first step in the SA06, potentially this car could be very good."

Sakon Yamamoto:

"This morning we were practicing for the qualifying session and we had a good car set-up, so during my first run I was able to set really good lap times."

"We then tried a new set of tyres and set-up and I wanted to know where the limit of the car was, so I used 100% of the car's performance, but unfortunately I left the track. I am so sorry that the team now has to work on my SA06 for tomorrow, but I am very much looking forward to my first race."

Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal:

"Taku did a very good job in Qualifying today. However we must remember that this is not our complete SA06 package and that we still have to work very hard for every forthcoming race. Sakon set consistently good times this morning, but he pushed too hard towards the end. Hopefully both he and Takuma will have a good race tomorrow and we will have both SA06 cars cross the finish line here in Germany."

Takuma Sato
Chassis: SA06-03
Grid Position: 17th
Best Lap Time: 1:17.185

Sakon Yamamoto
Chassis: T-Car SA05-01
Grid Position: 21st (preliminary)
Best Lap Time: 1:20.444

-superaguri-