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Ryo Hirakawa made a surprise Formula 1 race debut for Haas at the Mexico City Grand Prix after the team called him up just hours before Saturday qualifying to replace Esteban Ocon for the rest of the weekend. Hirakawa, who had already run in Friday’s Free Practice 1 session and took part in Free Practice 3, qualified 19th after missing Q2. He called the opportunity a “dream come true” and said traffic on his final Q1 lap was disappointing.

His Friday FP1 run was his third practice outing of the season in Haas’s VF-26, and he finished 15th in the session. Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said Hirakawa did a strong job and likely would have been close to advancing to Q2.

The 32-year-old Japanese driver brought a long résumé to his first start, with experience in karting, Japanese Formula 3, Super Formula, Super GT and the World Endurance Championship. He won the 2022 World Endurance Championship drivers’ title and helped Toyota win Le Mans in 2022 and 2023. Hirakawa had also served as a reserve or test driver for McLaren, Alpine and Haas, and became Formula 1’s oldest debutant since Andre Lotterer, who was 32 when he appeared at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix. Hirakawa later scored his first Formula 1 point on debut after post-race penalties for Oscar Piastri, Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly moved him into the points, after he had originally finished 13th on the road.

The FIA was investigating George Russell’s missed post-race media duties after the Mexican Grand Prix and said no dispensation had been granted for him to skip the session. Stewards summoned him over the omission, and Formula 1 stewards fined Mercedes €5,000. A team representative spoke for Russell by phone at the hearing.

Russell’s off-track issue came after a difficult race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where he received a 10-second time penalty for a first-lap collision with Isack Hadjar at Turn 6. Hadjar spun and dropped down the field after the contact. Russell had started second on the grid behind Lewis Hamilton and finished sixth after an energy deployment problem hurt him at the start and cost him ground early.

Mercedes said Russell was distraught after the race because Kimi Antonelli finished third and secured the Formula 1 world championship. Russell later congratulated Antonelli and his family. Toto Wolff said Mercedes “completely let Russell down,” and the result dropped Russell from second to fourth in the drivers’ standings.

Oscar Piastri was handed a 10-second penalty after stewards ruled he caused a collision with Arvid Lindblad in the Mexican Grand Prix. The contact came on lap 59 at Turn 1 as Piastri tried to pass for seventh place. Stewards said Piastri was not fully alongside Lindblad and could have avoided the collision, which sent Lindblad into the barriers.

Piastri had finished seventh on the road before the penalty was applied, but the sanction dropped him to 15th in the final classification and out of the points. Lindblad walked away unhurt.

Piastri said after the race that he viewed the incident as a racing incident. The penalty also affected the constructors’ battle behind the leaders, with Racing Bulls gaining fewer points than Alpine.

Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix for Red Bull, finishing 0.799 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari. It was Verstappen’s third win of the season and his sixth at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Kimi Antonelli finished third and clinched his maiden F1 world championship.

Verstappen took the lead through on-track gains and Red Bull’s pit strategy after Charles Leclerc’s penalty. Ferrari had been on course for a likely one-two finish before Hamilton and Leclerc clashed on the opening lap while fighting for the lead, and Leclerc received a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. After the race, Hamilton said Ferrari needed “serious talks” and “rules of engagement” and argued the team had thrown away a race it could have won easily. Fred Vasseur called the incident “a lack of respect” for Ferrari’s brand and workforce and said it was “a matter of respect.”

Kimi Antonelli clinched his first Formula 1 world title by finishing third at the Mexico City Grand Prix, becoming the youngest champion in Formula 1 history at 20 years and 67 days old. His title also made him Italy’s first Formula One world champion since 1953.

Antonelli held his nerve through late-race chaos after a red flag turned the finish into a 25-lap sprint. Max Verstappen won the race, while Lewis Hamilton finished behind him and was frustrated after contact with Verstappen at the restart.

Antonelli had gone into the race less comfortable than usual. He qualified fifth, was set to start fourth after Verstappen received a grid penalty, and said he felt more tense than usual, lacked confidence in qualifying, struggled to find confidence with the tires in Q3 and was not feeling 100 percent.

Valtteri Bottas crashed at Turn 1 during the Mexican Grand Prix after his Cadillac suffered a front-left suspension failure, triggering a red flag and bringing the race to a halt. The Safety Car was deployed, a medical car responded to the incident, and the race was stopped while the barriers were repaired.

Bottas gave medical staff a thumbs-up after the crash, and he was later seen getting out of the car and walking away unaided. Medical staff spent time speaking with him in the cockpit before he was taken for precautionary medical checks.

Bottas was forced to retire from the race. Cadillac said he was responsive on the radio after the crash, and George Russell asked over team radio whether Bottas was okay before being told that Bottas was speaking with the medical team. Broadcast commentator David Croft said Bottas was moving after the crash, while official confirmation of his full medical status still needed to come from Cadillac or the FIA.