Hirakawa's F1 debut soured by traffic as debutant targets Q2 in Mexico City qualifying

Ryo Hirakawa qualified 19th on his Formula 1 debut at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday, but the Haas stand-in is convinced he would have reached Q2 had he not been baulked by two rivals on his final flying lap in Q1.

Hirakawa was called up to replace Esteban Ocon, who was stood down from his driving duties for the weekend. The Japanese driver — a two-time FIA World Endurance Championship winner — had set a personal-best first sector and was on a lap that, by his own reckoning, would have eliminated Carlos Sainz from the session.

His hopes unravelled in the middle and final sectors after he encountered Alex Albon through the sweeping high-speed corners of sector two and then Franco Colapinto in the closing stages of the lap.

“I had traffic from Turn 6 and also high-speed sections, so I lost a lot of downforce,” Hirakawa said. “I could have been, I’ll say easily to Q2, which is a very, very big shame for me, but still it’s nice to be here, so I can’t complain much. The ambient conditions like this, as soon as you slide you feel the price in sector 3. You need to push, but at the same time you need to manage a bit.”

Hirakawa had driven the Haas in FP1 earlier in the weekend, which he said gave him a meaningful foundation heading into Saturday. He noted that much of his FP3 programme was oriented specifically towards qualifying preparation, leaving Sunday’s race as something of an open question in terms of race-day readiness.

For the grand prix itself, Hirakawa said his immediate priority was a clean getaway and surviving the first corner, declining to be drawn on any wider implications for his WEC title campaign. He and Toyota teammates Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley currently lead the Hypercar championship by 25 points over the sister Toyota #7 crew of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries ahead of the Monza finale.

“I’m just focused on tomorrow, nothing to discuss for next week,” he said. “Let’s see what we can do for tomorrow. A good start, a good first corner and a lot of new things — just execute and do my best.”

Despite the frustration of missing Q2, Hirakawa’s pace on debut drew attention in the paddock, with the Toyota endurance ace demonstrating that his single-seater instincts remain sharp even in the rarefied atmosphere of a Formula 1 qualifying session.