Super Aguri acheive double car finish in Australia

By nGO
April 2 2006

Three races in and Super Aguri acheive their target of a double car finish by bringing both cars to 12th and 13th place. After a rocket start in what was an action filled opening lap, Sato launches his car into the midfield pack while Ide avoids the chaos to complete his first ever grand prix.

The Australian grand prix was exciting and incident filled high on carnage, with the safety car being brought out on numerous occasions. In a race where many cars got caught out by the low grip and destroyed by accidents, both Super Aguri's steered clear of trouble with Sato finishing 12th and Ide completing his first ever grand prix in 13th.  

Even before the race began some of the front runners had problems, Montoya having a most embarrassing spin during the formation lap, and Fishichella's stall which resulted in the cars doing a second formation lap. The start of the race was filled with carnage as Massa and Rosberg had an early collision, and Trulli had a small run in with coulthard which resulted in his race finishing early.

After the mess subsided Sato astounded spectators by getting his car infront of Rubens, Coulthard, both Midlands and a renault. It must have came as a suprise when Rubens picking himself through the midpack was tucked up behind a Super Aguri expecting blue flags, but then being told it was a fight for position, he was unable to overtake Sato during that stint. Even Ide had his best run in F1 so far, being infront of a Midland for a brief while.

What was started out as a tough weekend turned into a pleasent result, with both cars finishing and even mixing it for positions on the verge of the top ten. There was plenty to learn and assess from Australia, new experiances such as unpredictable weather, multiple deployment of the safety car and the performance of their new front wing. Super Aguri will be heading to Barcelona to do further testing, and hopefully come to San Marino even stronger and more competitive.

It was an action packed and enjoyable race for Sato having fought with many cars and finishing 12th - the highest classification ever for Super Aguri so far, "At the start of the race I was driving side-by-side with many other cars for position and I was able to work my way up to the middle of the pack - it was very exciting and I really enjoyed it. Although the safety car came out three times today it was very good training for us and I am happy that we managed to complete our actions successfully. Unfortunately though I had a problem with my left-front wheel and had to come into the pits towards the end of the race. At the end of the next lap I had another wheel problem, this time with my front-right, and so I had to finish the race in the pitlane. I am a little disappointed that I did not take the chequered flag as the boys had done such a great job today, but it was still a great day for the team."

Third time lucky as Ide's car does not let him down this time and he completes his first grand prix, however Ide is not satisfied and will try to improve even more to be competitive in the future, "This is the first time that both Taku and I have finished a race, so I am happy about that. However, I am far from being competitive compared to the other drivers, so I want to improve my driving skills and learn the next circuit as quickly as possible. I will be testing in Barcelona in a week's time, so I will be able to spend more time in the car and learn more of the skills that I need to improve."