Author Archives: PressBox

Charles Leclerc received a five-second penalty at the Mexico City Grand Prix after stewards ruled he left the track and gained an advantage in an opening-lap fight with Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc, who started third, went off while challenging for the lead and rejoined ahead of Hamilton, who had started on pole. Max Verstappen moved into second place after the incident, and Hamilton dropped to third. Hamilton complained over team radio after the move, and race control later reviewed the incident.

The penalty complicated Ferrari’s strategy, and it came after the FIA had warned before the race that leaving the track in the first corners to gain a lasting advantage would be policed more strictly. Hamilton said Leclerc should have given the position back.

Verstappen also mocked the decision, saying he thought new penalties were 10 seconds.

Ryo Hirakawa made his Formula 1 race debut for Haas at the Mexico City Grand Prix, replacing Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the weekend. The 32-year-old Japanese driver qualified 19th for his first F1 start and became Formula 1’s oldest debutant since Andre Lotterer, who was also 32 when he raced at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix.

Born in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, Hirakawa began karting in 2007 and won the All-Japan Junior Kart Championship the next year. He went on to win the Japanese Formula 3 title in 2012 and the Super GT GT500 championship in 2017, then captured the World Endurance Championship drivers’ title in 2022 and helped Toyota win the Le Mans 24 Hours in both 2022 and 2023. Before his Haas debut, he had served as a reserve or test driver for McLaren, Alpine and Haas and had made several Formula 1 Free Practice 1 appearances.

Hirakawa is married to Nagisa and has a daughter named Lara. He said his focus for the race was to get a good start and make it through the first corner cleanly.

Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin qualifying session at the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix ended early after a power unit problem, leaving him frustrated beyond imagination and set to start 18th on the grid. Aston Martin said a suspected water pressure issue linked to the ERS system forced him to stop in Q1, after Alonso had briefly topped the timing charts early in the session before he was told to park the car.

Alonso said the problem likely could not have been fixed in the garage. When asked what happened, he replied, “Engine,” and said, “Not from the back,” when asked whether he could recover from 18th. He said the Mexico City circuit was less power-sensitive because it has fewer straights, but added that overtaking would still be difficult in the race because of traffic and high temperatures.

Alonso said the qualifying setback summed up Aston Martin’s “story of the year” and that the team had lost “a big opportunity” because of the failure. He also joked after qualifying that he was “heading straight to Brazil.” Aston Martin had already had trouble earlier in the weekend when reserve driver Jak Crawford’s FP1 session ended after the AMR-26 broke down on track.

Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix stewards issued a pre-race clarification aimed at preventing a repeat of last year’s controversial opening lap. They said the same rule would apply at the race start and on the first lap after any safety-car or red-flag restart, with cars in Turns 1 to 3 and Turns 4 to 6 treated as both attacking and defending by default. Any driver who left the track in those areas and kept position could be judged to have gained a lasting advantage, and any driver who gained a position by going off track had to give it back immediately.

The stewards also set out specific give-back points for drivers who ran wide. A driver who left the track in the Turns 1 to 3 area had to yield by Turn 4, while a driver who ran wide in the Turns 4 to 6 area had to yield by Turn 12.

The clarification came after last year’s Mexico Grand Prix start, when Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton went four-wide into Turn 1 and several drivers cut across the grass. Verstappen and Leclerc both left the track at the start, and George Russell later complained that drivers who made mistakes were allowed to keep their positions without punishment. At the 2025 race, Leclerc and Russell both cut the corner at Turn 1 and were not penalized.