Mexico City Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Q1 saw Ryō Hirakawa make his Formula 1 qualifying debut, wheeling the VF-26 in a competitive session for the first time. The Japanese driver’s lap times dropped as he cycled through new sets of the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires. However, traffic on his final flying run thwarted what was set to be his fastest Q1 lap. Instead, Hirakawa’s banked 1:18.958 landed P19 at the checkered. Bearman advanced into Q2 with a best effort of 1:18.083 – good for P11.

Bearman ran two new sets of soft rubber in Q2 but lost his fastest lap time – a 1:17.847, due to a track limits violation at Turn 12. The Briton’s earlier Q2 time of 1:18.083 – identical to his fastest tour in Q1, earned P15 in the session.

Q3 saw Scuderia Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton claim pole position at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez courtesy of a session best lap time of 1:16.514.

Ollie Bearman:

“It was a good session, honestly, considering what happened in FP3, which was that we arrived with a car that was just not working at all. Considering that, I think we did a good job, the car felt very good. Especially in Q2, I was on for a really nice lap but made a mistake in Turn 12. It’s a shame, and it’s tough because I’m kind of taking a step into the unknown every time I get into qualifying when we have these FP2 and FP3 sessions when they’re quite disrupted. It’s difficult because the car is quick, we just can’t make it quick in every session, and then it’s challenging to consistently put the car on the edge. I’m excited for tomorrow, let’s see what we can do as the pace looks good and we should be further up the grid than we are.”

Ryō Hirakawa:

“I’m here to be a reserve driver and am always ready. I’ve dreamt about it, and today, the dream has come true to race tomorrow. Today has flown by, there’s been a lot to prepare, and the team has helped a lot, so thanks to them. For the race, there’s a lot to go through, but today the focus was to try to get through Q1. Unfortunately for me, I had traffic in my last push lap, which is a shame as the car was working well. Tonight, I’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m excited for the race tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“It was a bit of a mixed bag for us today. Ryō was drafted into the car last minute, and I think considering that, he’s done a really good job. In FP3, the progress he was making was very clear, and Q1 is always a very tricky session with the tire being on the edge, but he stayed calm and managed to extract most of the performance. It’s a shame that he had traffic in the worst possible place, in the high-speed corners. I don’t know if he could’ve made it to Q2, but it would’ve been close. That would’ve been his reward for his great effort today.

“On Ollie’s side, we didn’t maximize everything, which is a shame because his FP1 was very strong, but FP2 and FP3, the car wasn’t where it should be, so he completely lost his reference. We managed however, to get the car back to a good base for qualifying, but that meant he started Q1 run one, like it was FP1 run one. On that note, he had a great Q1, and in Q2, he was making great progress but pushed it too hard into Turn 12. There are a few things we can look at to improve consistency, but I’d like to thank the team for all their hard work and effort, as we’ve had engine changes both days in a short space of time and never missed a session, so that’s a great effort. Starting a bit further back than where we wanted to now, but we will race hard tomorrow to try and get back as many places as possible.”