Perez crashes on first lap of practice in Hungary

Purple Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed on his very first lap of follow on the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Perez’s error prevented the opposite drivers from getting any dry working as rain began to fall throughout the red-flag interval referred to as to get well the broken Purple Bull.

Mercedes’ George Russell was quickest with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in second.

Fernando Alonso had been quickest within the Aston Martin earlier than pitting a couple of minutes earlier than the tip of the session with the monitor circumstances nonetheless bettering.

Solely 11 drivers set lap instances, and championship chief Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton weren’t amongst them.

Perez’s crash has elevated the stress on him after a troublesome run during which he has didn’t qualify within the high 10 for 5 consecutive races.

His remarks over the radio instantly after the crash made it clear that he understood the potential seriousness of the error.

“I can not imagine this,” Perez mentioned.

Group principal Christian Horner mentioned: “He simply misjudged it. It was only a mistake. You would hear the frustration in his voice.”

Perez’s early-season ambition of difficult team-mate Verstappen for the championship has collapsed as his season has imploded following a sequence of errors.

On the similar time, former Purple Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo, who received seven races for the workforce from 2014-18, has returned to the grid as a substitute at their second workforce Alpha Tauri for Nyck de Vries, who was fired final week.

Ricciardo has mentioned his dream is to go nicely sufficient within the Alpha Tauri to once more earn a seat at Purple Bull.

Perez, who has a Purple Bull contract for 2024, mentioned on Thursday that Ricciardo’s return “does not change something” for him, insisting that his future was “in my fingers”.

Horner has mentioned that he believed Perez’s downside was that he had been placing an excessive amount of stress on himself, and added after the British Grand Prix that Perez “simply wants a clear weekend”.

That hope is already forlorn in Hungary, though it could nicely end up that Perez is lucky in that the climate prevented anybody else studying about their vehicles in dry circumstances so he is not going to be as behind as he would have been had the session not been hit by rain.

Numerous drivers did exit later within the session to attempt their vehicles on intermediate tyres within the moist circumstances, and Carlos Sainz brought on a second crimson flag when he spun popping out of Flip Three.

He made mild contact with the wall with the rear of his automobile and broken his entrance wing however was unable to restart himself as a result of he was beached on the kerb. The incident broken Sainz’s entrance wing.

Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was one other driver to fall foul of the circumstances, additionally damaging a entrance wing with a spin.