Keisuke Kunimoto

Hangeul	이경우
Hanja	李京佑
Revised Romanization	I Gyeong-u
McCune- Reischauer	I Kyŏng-u
See also : Korean name

Kunimoto in the Formula 3 Toyota on his victory drive at the Macau Grand Prix 2008

Keisuke Kunimoto ( Japanese 国 本 京 佑 , Kunimoto Keisuke ; born January 9, 1989 in Yokohama ) is a Japanese ( 3rd generation Zainichi ) racing driver . He is the older brother of the racing driver Yūji Kunimoto .

Career

Kunimoto is considered one of the most talented young Japanese pilots. After having been active in karting from 2001 to 2006 , he began his monoposto career at the age of 17 and entered the Formula Challenge Japan . This racing formula is a junior formula that enables young drivers to get into motorsport with a reasonable financial outlay. In 2007 he won the championship of this formula and in 2008 switched to the Japanese Formula 3 championship , of which he was runner-up in the same year. He won three races and was ultimately defeated by his team-mate Carlo van Dam . He also started in the Super GT , a Japanese GT racing series and finished ninth overall with a win. At the end of the year, he became the second Japanese to win the prestigious Macau Grand Prix for Formula 3 vehicles after Takuma Satō .

In 2009 he was promoted to Formula Nippon , which he finished in 13th and last place overall, and made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans as one of the youngest drivers of all time . As a partner of Sascha Maassen and Seiji Ara , he had to give up the race prematurely after an accident in the Porsche RS Spyder . He also started four races in the World Series by Renault for Epsilon Euskadi . In 2010 Kunimoto played alongside Albert Costa for Epsilon Euskadi for the entire season in the World Series by Renault. While Costa finished the season in fifth place, the Japanese finished 22nd overall.

statistics

Career stations

• 2001-2006: karting
• 2006: Formula Challenge Japan (7th place)
• 2007: Formula Challenge Japan (Champion)
• 2008: Japanese Formula 3 Championship (2nd place)
• 2009 : Formula Nippon (13th place); World Series by Renault (32nd place)
• 2010 : World Series by Renault (22nd place)

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2009	Navi Team Goh	Porsche RS Spyder	Seiji Ara	Sascha Maassen	failure	accident

Web links

Commons : Keisuke Kunimoto  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Keisuke Kunimoto