New Haas driver Ryo Hirakawa admitted he was astonished Haas called him up to replace Esteban Ocon this weekend.
The World Endurance Champion drove Ocon’s car in first practice, then handed it back to him for the second session. Haas then took the unexpected decision, which they have not offered any explanation for, to drop Ocon for the rest of the event and hand his seat to Hirakawa.“Obviously it was a very big surprise this morning, but I’m always here to be a reserve driver,” said Hirakawa. “This is a role I was always ready for, but always dreaming about it.
“Then today, the dream came true: Qualifying today and race tomorrow. So these five hours passed so fast, I had so much to prepare and the team helped a lot for myself so really thanks to the team.”
Hirakawa set the 19th fastest time in final practice, half a second slower than team mate Oliver Bearman. That gap grew to 0.875 seconds in Q1, where Bearman was the only driver to progress, but Hirakawa believes he could have delivered a better lap time.
“Today the main focus was to go through Q1, which was a shame for me. I had traffic in the last push lap, so it was [big] shame.
“But everything went well. I just need to focus for tomorrow, for the race. I’m very excited for that.”
This article will be updated
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