Hot surface ignition is relevant in the context of industrial safety. In the present work, two-dimensional simulations using simplified kinetics of the buoyancy-driven flow and ignition of a slightly lean n-hexane-air mixture by a rapidly heated surface (glowplug) are reported. Experimentally, ignition is most often observed to occur at the top of the glowplug; numerical results reproduce this trend and shed light on this behavior. The numerical predictions of the flow field and hot surface temperature at ignition are in quantitative agreement with experiments. The simulations suggest that flow separation plays a crucial role in creating zones where convective losses are minimized and heat diffusion is maximized, resulting in the critical conditions for ignition to take place.