Hiroki Yoshimoto

For Hiroki Yoshimoto's GP2 Asia Series career head to the Hiroki Yoshimoto/GP2 Asia article.

Hiroki Yoshimoto (born 2 September 1980 in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan; 吉本 大樹 in Japanese) is a Japanese racing driver, who competed in the FIA GP2 Series between 2005 and 2006. Racing with BCN Competición throughout his GP2 career, Yoshimoto would claim two podium finishes, achieving a best championship of fifteenth in 2006.

Yoshimoto join GP2 ahead of the inaugural 2005 season, partnering Ernesto Viso at BCN for the campaign. Unfortunately the Japanese racer would have a season plagued by mechanical strife, with one second place finish leaving him in sixteenth in the Championship.

Retained by BCN for 2006, Yoshimoto would get a new teammate in the form of Timo Glock, before the German racer was replaced by Luca Filippi mid-season. Regardless, Yoshimoto would claim another podium finish among a handful of points finishes, although a long pointless run saw the Japanese racer end the season in fifteenth.

After leaving GP2 at the end of 2006, Yoshimoto moved to the Formula Asia V6 by Renault series, before landing a seat in the inaugural GP2 Asia Series in 2008 GP2 Asia Series. Tenth at the end of that campaign saw Yoshimoto re-join BCN for the 2008-09 season for the opening round, before leaving the GP2 format completely to take a seat in Super GT.

Yoshimoto would also find minor fame as the lead singer of doa, a Japanese rock band, under the name Daiki Yoshimoto.

Background
Yoshimoto would begin his career in karting in his native Japan, before making the move to Japanese Formula Junior 1600 in 1999. A move to Formula Toyota followed in 2000, with a symbiotic campaign in Korean F1800 for the Japanese racer, without major success. In 2001 the Japanese Formula Three Championship would be Yoshimoto's focus, although he would only get two race appearances.

Asian Ace: 2001 - 2004
Yoshimoto would secure a full Japanese F3 seat for 2002, with a strong rookie season seeing him claim one win en-route to eighth in the Championship. Yoshimoto would also get his Macau Grand Prix debut, finishing fifth, with those exploits earning him a second Japanese F3 season in 2003. A less spectacular season saw Yoshimoto fail to add to his win tally, as he slipped back to tenth in the title hunt.

2004 saw Yoshimoto move to the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, racing in the GT300 class. Twelfth at the end of the season would result, with Yoshimoto also making two appearances in the World Series by Nissan to end the season.

GP2 Series Career
Yoshimoto was signed by the BCN Competición team for the inaugural 2005 FIA GP2 Series, partnering Ernesto Viso as the only driver to have solely competed in Asia prior to GP2. The Japanese racer would have a quiet start to the season after being issued with #6 as his race number, retiring from the opening race in Imola.

Post GP2 Series Career
Yoshimoto left GP2 at the end of the 2006 season, instead signing up to the Formula Asia V6 by Renault Championship for the season. However, after just one season in Formula Asia, Yoshimoto would join the inaugural 2008 GP2 Asia Series, taking a seat with Qi-Meritus Mahara alongside Luca Filippi. Tenth at the end of the season saw Yoshimoto rejoin the BCN Competición outfit for the start of the 2008-09 GP2 Asia Series, although he would subsequently leave the team after the opening round after they were taken over by Ocean Racing Technology.

With that Yoshimoto moved fully into the Super GT Championship, racing in the GT300 class for various manufacturers from 2009 onward. His best season would come in 2012, when the Japanese racer led the pseudo-factory Aston Martin team to second in the GT300 class that season.

Full GP2 Series Record
Shown below are a series of tables outlining 's career in the GP2 Series in statistical form.

GP2 Series Entries
The list below includes all of the teams and cars, as well as overall finishing positions for during their GP2 career:

Career Results
Below is a table showing 's full GP2 Series record.