Sports / Motor Racing |
Sato celebrates Super Aguri's first point(Reuters)Updated: 2007-05-14 09:42 Takuma Sato handed Super Aguri their first point in Formula One with eighth place at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. "It was just an amazing weekend and an amazing afternoon," said the Japanese driver, who ended Giancarlo Fisichella's run of eight races in the points when the Renault driver pitted seven laps from the end and emerged in ninth place. "I really didn't expect today's result, it was a truly great performance from the team," Sato told Reuters, bottles of champagne on ice nearby. "From the start I was struggling a little bit with the pace, the car's handling wasn't really to my liking but I kept on going. "In the last stint I was able to push really hard and I knew we were fighting with Giancarlo. When I saw him coming up to the pit exit, fractionally ahead of him, it was just so exciting. "It's only 22 races that we've done in Formula One and to score a point in this way, racing properly, this is a truly amazing performance." Honda-powered Super Aguri, founded by former racer Aguri Suzuki, entered the sport last year as the 11th team and raced with a car based on a four-year-old Arrows for much of 2006. This year's car has been controversial, with rivals questioning its legality by saying it is essentially last year's race-winning Honda. Super Aguri say they are within the regulations. Embarrassingly for Honda, their own team has yet to score a point this season and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button collided as the Briton was exiting from his first pitstop. "I hit the kerb on the apex and that threw me offline," said Button. "I lost my front wing as I touched the right rear of Rubens's car." Barrichello's 10th-place finish, the team's best result of the year, provided scant consolation. Super Aguri were not the only team to beat their engine suppliers on Sunday. Germany's Nico Rosberg finished sixth for Toyota-powered Williams, lifting that team to fifth place in the constructors' championship and one ahead of the Japanese factory team, who drew a blank. Renault-powered Red Bull celebrated their first point of the year with Briton David Coulthard fifth, ahead of both champions Renault's cars. |
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