After being knocked out in Q1 and qualifying all the way down in 20th place on Saturday, Hirakawa charged his way back through the field on race day, passing 16 cars en route to his best finish since April’s third round at Suzuka.
The Team Impul driver had already climbed into the top 10 before the pit window opened on lap 10 of 41, and was the last driver to make his pitstop, waiting until lap 30 to make his mandatory tyre change.
He then managed to pass reigning champion Tomoki Nojiri, Naoki Yamamoto and Kakunoshin Ota in quick succession to move into the top five, before completing his charge by coming out on top of a thrilling last-lap battle with Ren Sato for fourth.
“I had a good feeling today, but the result was beyond my expectations,” said Hirakawa. “Everything went well, I would give myself 10 out of 10.
“The start went well, I managed to pass everyone cleanly in one go, and the pitstop was also good. I think it was the perfect race.
“I was careful to save the OTS (Overtake System), and I was fortunate to be the only driver with OTS left at the end. The tyre offset was also big, so I was pretty confident I could pass even when the other driver was defending hard.”
Hirakawa added that cooler-than-expected conditions on Sunday helped him preserve his tyres for the long first stint.
“Our car tends to be stronger in cool conditions, so we had that on our side as well,” he said. “But the pace was even better than I expected. The car was easy to drive.”
Asked by Motorsport.com if he felt challenging eventual winner Liam Lawson for victory could have been possible with a better starting position, Hirakawa replied: “The gap to P1 was only 19 seconds, so of course there would have been a chance.
“[In qualifying] the car felt good, but we made a few mistakes and a miscommunication… and we were still so close to passing through to Q2. We are fighting for tenths, or even less.
“If I had managed to qualify even P8 or P9, it would have been a different story. We don’t know why some guys are so quick in qualifying. That’s what we have to work on.”
Hirakawa sits sixth in the drivers’ standings with three races to go, albeit now a massive 50 points down on series leader Ritomo Miyata, who finished third on Sunday.
