Alpine's Yellow-Flag Penalties Hand Hirakawa a Point on His F1 Debut

Alpine left Mexico City empty-handed after stewards penalised both Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags. The pair had crossed the line eighth and 10th, only to be shuffled down the classification hours later — and a debutant inherited the final point.

Why it matters:

Alpine did the hard work on track and lost it all in the stewards' room. For a team grinding for every single point, that is a painful setback, and it turned a strong Sunday into damage limitation while direct rivals gained at their expense.

The details:

• Colapinto received a 10-second penalty for a single-yellow infringement. Gasly's stop-and-go for double yellows was converted into 30 seconds added to his race time.
• Stewards rejected telemetry and photographic evidence submitted by Colapinto and Alpine, ruling it insufficient to show the required speed reduction. Gasly's data was measured against other drivers.
• Colapinto was cleared of a separate suspected double-yellow breach, with officials citing uncertainty over whether he had been adequately warned.
• One penalty point went on Colapinto's superlicence, two on Gasly's. Both apologised afterwards. "It is my error which has obviously stopped us from scoring points," Gasly said.
• The reshuffle lifted Liam Lawson to seventh, Gabriel Bortoleto to eighth, Isack Hadjar to ninth and Ryo Hirakawa to 10th.
• Hirakawa, 32, got the call after Haas withdrew Esteban Ocon ahead of final practice, leaving him one session and qualifying to prepare for his first F1 race. He is the oldest debutant since Andre Lotterer at Spa in 2014.

What's next:

Haas has yet to confirm who occupies Ocon's seat in Sao Paulo, leaving Hirakawa's next step unclear. Alpine, meanwhile, depart Mexico with a stewards' verdict to absorb and very little room for further error.