Yuhi Sekiguchi

Yuhi Sekiguchi (関口雄飛) is a Japanese racing driver. He currently competes in the GT500 class of the Super GT Series for TGR Team SARD.

Sekiguchi won the 2011 Japanese Formula 3 Championship and the 2021 Super GT GT500 class championship.

Career
Sekiguchi made his single-seater debut in 2004 after winning a scholarship from Toyota to compete in the Japanese Formula Toyota series. He also raced part time in the Asian Formula Renault Challenge. In 2006, Sekiguchi won the Formula Toyota championship in his third season, and also won the inaugural Formula Challenge Japan championship.

All-Japan Formula Three
Sekiguchi moved up to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship in 2007, driving for the Now Motor Sports team owned by Naohiro Fujita. He finished seventh overall in the points standings.

International Formula Master
Sekiguchi moved to Europe in 2008 to compete in the International Formula Master championship. He finished sixteenth in the points standings, with two fourth-place finishes at Imola and Monza.

GP2 Series
In late 2008, Sekiguchi competed in the first round of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season for the David Price Racing team. His team-mate was Michael Herck. He was the fourth Japanese driver in the championship, alongside Sakon Yamamoto, Kamui Kobayashi, and Hiroki Yoshimoto. However, he was then replaced by Giacomo Ricci from the second round onwards.

Return to All-Japan Formula Three
Sekiguchi returned to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship for 2009, finishing fifth in the National class with AIM Sports. He moved to ThreeBond Racing and finished second in the 2010 championship with three wins, then took part in his first Macau Grand Prix. In 2011, Sekiguchi moved to B-Max Engineering and won the series championship with six victories. He then went on to finish fourth in that year's Macau Grand Prix driving for Mücke Motorsport.

Afterwards, Sekiguchi would make part-time appearances in All-Japan F3 with B-Max in 2013 and 2015. He also returned to the Macau Grand Prix in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018.

GT300 (2007-2012)
Sekiguchi made his Super GT debut in 2007, partnering 2002 GT500 champion Akira Iida at Racing Project Bandoh. In just his fifth race at Sportsland Sugo, Sekiguchi drove from behind and passed Shigekazu Wakisaka with just a few laps remaining to take the win. In doing so he became the youngest GT300 class winner at the time, at 19 years, 7 months of age (a record which would be broken in 2008 by Keisuke Kunimoto).

Sekiguchi made a one-off appearance for the Bandoh team during the 2008 Suzuka 1000km. After returning to Japan, he began driving for Hironori Takeuchi's SHIFT team in mid-2009. He drove for JLOC during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, recording a best finish of third in the 2010 season finale at Motegi. After winning the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship in 2011, and after a solid performance in that year's Macau Grand Prix, Sekiguchi joined NDDP (Nissan Driver Development Programme) Racing in 2012, driving their new Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 alongside newcomer Katsumasa Chiyo. Sekiguchi and Chiyo won at Sugo to give the GT-R its first GT300 race win. Sekiguchi would later serve a one-race ban during the September round at Fuji for reaching ten penalty points under the Driving Moral Hazard Prevention System.

GT500 (2013-)
Sekiguchi made his debut in the GT500 class for the 2013 season, joining the defending series champion MOLA and partnering three-time GT500 champion co-driver Satoshi Motoyama. Sekiguchi led the opening laps of the fourth round at Sugo but would finish seventh after a puncture. Their best finish was fourth at Autopolis. In 2014, Sekiguchi transferred from Nissan to Lexus and reunited with Racing Project Bandoh, who had made the step up to GT500 in 2011. He drove alongside another three-time GT500 champion, Juichi Wakisaka. Sekiguchi and Wakisaka finished in the points in every race during the 2015 season. Yuji Kunimoto became Sekiguchi's new teammate in 2016 after Wakisaka retired from driving in Super GT during the off-season.

At Buriram International Circuit in Thailand, Sekiguchi and Kunimoto won from pole position. It was Sekiguchi's first career GT500 win and the first GT500 win for the Bandoh team in six years; Racing Project Bandoh would not win again in GT500 until the June 2023 race at Suzuka. Sekiguchi finished every race in the points for the second year in a row, and was fourth in the standings alongside Kunimoto.

Sekiguchi moved to TOM'S Racing in 2018, and won the 2018 Fuji GT 500 Mile Race and 2019 Suzuka round alongside co-driver Kazuki Nakajima. In 2020, he and GT500 newcomer Sacha Fenestraz finished fourth in the championship, driving the new Toyota GR Supra GT500.

For 2021, Sekiguchi was joined by Sho Tsuboi at TOM'S. Sekiguchi and Tsuboi went into the final round at Fuji trailing championship leader Naoki Yamamoto by 16 points. They won the race from fourth on the grid, and after Yamamoto was involved in an accident with Honda GT300 driver Ren Sato, Sekiguchi, Tsuboi, and TOM'S would win the GT500 championship after overcoming the largest point deficit in the final round of the season.

Sekiguchi joined TGR Team SARD in 2022, reuniting with his former co-driver Wakisaka, who was now the team director. He and Yuichi Nakayama finished eighth in the standings in 2022, and ninth in the standings in 2023.

Super Formula (2016-2023)
Sekiguchi spent eight seasons in the Super Formula Championship with Team Impul. He made his series debut in 2016, as one of two rookies in the field alongside reigning GP2 Series champion Stoffel Vandoorne. He finished third in the 2016 championship with two wins, at Twin Ring Motegi, and at Sportsland Sugo. At Sugo, Sekiguchi won from pole position after building up a 14-second lead when the safety car was deployed following a spin by teammate João Paulo de Oliveira. Once the safety car was withdrawn, Sekiguchi lapped over a second per lap faster than the field to build a 35-second lead before making his pit stop. He left the pits ahead of second-place Daisuke Nakajima and won by over 14 seconds without relinquishing the lead.

He held off another GP2 Series champion and Formula One prospect, Pierre Gasly, by 0.243 seconds to take his second consecutive win at Sugo in 2017. In the 2019 round at Autopolis, he won from 16th on the grid, setting the record for the lowest starting position by a race winner in series history. And in 2022, Sekiguchi fought off team-mate Ryo Hirakawa to win the second race of a double-header at Motegi, for his first victory in over three years, and his last in the series.

Sekiguchi finished as high as third in the championship standings twice, in 2016, and in 2021 when he helped Impul win the Teams' Championship. He was dropped from the Toyota Super Formula roster in 2024 after failing to score any points in the previous season. In total, Sekiguchi recorded seven victories, six pole positions, and 13 podiums in 65 races.

Career summary

 * † - As Sekiguchi was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
 * ‡ - Team standings

Complete Japanese Formula 3 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Super GT results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
 * Season still in progress.

Complete Super Formula results
(Races in bold indicate pole position)
 * Season still in progress.