Formula One news

Gascoyne impressed by Yamamoto

Mike Gascoyne says Sakon Yamamoto has made an encouraging start to his Spyker career despite his poor showing at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Although the Japanese driver showed inconsistent pace over the course of weekend before ending up in the barriers after just five laps of the race, Spyker's chief technical officer believes Yamamoto has a lot of potential.

"To be honest if he hadn't been baulked by Fisichella he would have qualified very close to Adrian, within a few tenths of him," Gascoyne said. "He built up his speed over the weekend. It's a shame he made a mistake in the race, because it would have been good for him to get 70 laps under his belt, no matter how far back he finished. I was very impressed and pleased with him, to be honest."

What impressed Gascoyne the most about the former Super Aguri driver was his attitude. He admires his honest approach and thinks he made the most of what was a difficult situation, being thrown in at the deep end, having never driven the Spyker car before the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"To be honest I was very impressed with his professionalism," Gascoyne coninued. "He has very good work ethic, he speaks good English, he has a sense of humour, and he understands our European ways and mentality. He really applied himself and worked very hard. He's got to work on his consistency, but he can drive, and he's a very likeable bloke to boot. After he crashed he came up, looked me straight in the eye, and said "Sorry boss, I made a mistake, it was totally my fault." There was no, "It was understeering," or it was this or that, he was very honest. It was a shame for him, but overall considering how difficult it is to jump in the slowest car on the grid, he did a very professional job."

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