20/3/1972
Record updated 20-Mar-07
The first Portuguese driver to score a point in a World Championship event, Pedro Lamy drove in 36 Grand Prix.
Notable for being the first Portuguese driver to score a point in a World Championship event, in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, for Minardi. He was born in Aldeia Galega, a village near Alenquer, Portugal.
José Pedro Lamy Viçoso started competing in motocross before switching to karting. Lamy then moved up into single seaters and won the Portuguese Formula Ford Championship in his debut year, 1989, at the age of 17.
Taking on Domingos Piedade as a manager, Lamy moved to Formula Opel Lotus and won the championship in his second attempt, in 1991.
With Piedade's help, Pedro went to Germany to race in the local Formula 3 series. Signing for Willi Weber's team, he defeated Marco Werner in the fight for the Championship, in 1992, also winning the Marlboro Masters in Zandvoort and finishing second in the Macau Grand Prix.
In 1993 he raced for Crypton Engineering in Formula 3000 and finished second in the series, one point behind champion Olivier Panis, although he scored a win at Pau, a narrow street course considered even more difficult than Monaco. In the same year, Lamy got the chance to race in the final four Formula 1 races of the season, replacing injured Alessandro Zanardi in the Lotus team. He scored no points, but was signed for the team to drive the full 1994 season.
Unfortunately, Lamy suffered a crash in private testing at Silverstone, breaking both legs and sitting in the sidelines for over a year. After intense physical therapy, he managed to sign a contract to race in the second half of the season for Minardi, replacing Pierluigi Martini, and scoring the team's only point of the season in Adelaide.
Lamy stayed with Minardi for 1996, but the team's lack of resources meant the car received little development, and the Portuguese driver finished his F1 career, after 32 Grand Prix starts.
Afterwards, Lamy moved to the FIA GT Championship, where he won the GT2 class in 1998 in an Oreca Dodge Viper. He then raced in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the DTM for the works Mercedes team, but was unhappy with his treatment within the team.
Switching to the Zakspeed outfit, he won the Nurburgring 24 Hours twice in a row (in 2002 and 2003), taking the V8STAR series crown as well, in 2003.
In 2004 he drove for BMW Motorsport in a few selected events and won the GTS class in the Le Mans Endurance Series in a Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello.
For 2005, Lamy was an Aston Martin works driver for the Sebring 12 Hours and Le Mans, also racing for BMW in Nurburgring and the Larbre team in the FIA GT Championship. In 2005 Lamy was announced as the driver of A1 Team Portugal, that will participate in the 2005/2006 A1 Grand Prix. However Álvaro Parente was appointed the main driver's seat.
For 2007 Lamy will be a factory driver for the Peugeot 908 in the European Le Mans Series, as well as driving the diesel-powered prototype in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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