Hungaroring, FP1: Hamilon on top in Hungary as Perez crashes out

Perez in dramatic practice crash

Lewis Hamilton went quickest in the opening practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, outpacing team-mate Nico Rosberg by just over a tenth of a second. However, it was the heavy crash involving Force India’s Sergio Perez that grabbed most attention.

The Mexican’s accident came an hour into the session. The Force India driver went offline in the exit of Turn 11 and as the car ran across the kerbing the rear suspension failed. Perez’s car spun across to the other side of the track, hit the barrier nose-first and as the car was pitched back towards the track, it dug in and was flipped upside down.

Perez radioed through to his team that he was “OK” and quickly emerged from the wrecked car. The red flags were immediately displayed halting running.

The session had begun in the high temperatures traditionally associated with the Hungaroring at this time of year and after the first half hour on the ‘free’ set of prime tyres on offer to teams it was Hamilton who led the way from Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

After the red flag for Perez’s crash, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the session with a time of 1:25.141, with Rosberg slotting into P2 with his best time of 1:25.250.

The red flags came out again, however, when Kimi Räikkönen, suffered a front wing failure on his Ferrari SF-15T as he clattered across the kerbs at Turn 12. Despite the incident, which also led to a punctured tyre, Räikkönen was able to hold third place on the timesheet with a lap of of 1:25.812.

Ferrari’s difficulties in the session were compounded by Sebastian Vettel encountering a power united issue that led to a loss of power. He was sixth fastest.

Fourth and fifth places behind Räikkönen went to the Red Bull Racing cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. Both drivers finished the session just over nine tenths adrift of Hamilton.

With Vettel sixth, seventh place went to Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was seventh for Toro Rosso, with the unfortunate Perez eighth. Williams’ Valterri Bottas was ninth and the top ten was rounded out the second Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen.

Elsewhere, Swiss driver Fabio Leimer made his FP1 debut, taking over the Manor of Roberto Merhi for the session. The 2013 GP2 champion ended the session in 19th place, a second down on regular Manor racer Will Stevens.