F1 Hungarian GP: Russell fastest in FP1 as Perez crashes early on

Mercedes’ George Russell topped the first practice session, ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed out on his first flying lap.

How first practice unfolded…

As the traffic light waited to go green, at the exit of the pit lane, a small queue. It was headed by the Mercedes of George Russell, Williams Alexander Albon and Alpha Tauri’s Daniel Ricciardo who has made his F1 return after de Vries’ departure.

In the early minutes, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou reported that he was lost a lot of energy from his hybrid system which his team quickly ordered him back into the garage.

As the Chinese driver commuted to the pit lane, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez red-flagged the session after four minutes, on his first push lap. Replays showed the Mexican dipped his left side onto the grass, on the entry to turn five, which sent the RB19 into a spin before he slammed into the barrier. Fortunately, Perez was okay but he was out of the session.

The session quickly resumed but the rain had begun to fall in the latter part of the lap. However, it quickly became ‘undrivable’ as quoted by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who sat in 10th and spun around at turn 12, with 46 minutes left on the clock. Due to the rain, a number of drivers peeled into the pit lane for intermediate tyres.

Although the rain continued to fall down, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Albon all peeled out onto the circuit, on their own separate occasions, equipped with intermediate tyres to test the conditions.

After a recon lap, all the drivers quickly returned to the pit lane to return to their respective garages without setting a wet lap time on the board.

With 30 minutes left on the clock, Russell remained out on the top of the timing board ahead of Albon and Ricciardo who were all yet to set a representative time. At the same time, a number of drivers including both McLaren drivers, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly returned to the track with the intermediates as the rain poured down.

Due to the increased wet conditions, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had a snap of oversteer on the run through turn four. Although the conditions worsened, the Australian McLaren driver was able to quickly regain control of his MCL60 before he found himself in a spin.

As the conditions began to improve, a handful of drivers started to filter back out onto the circuit with the intermediates attached.

The session was red-flagged once again as Sainz beached his SF-23 on the grass verge, down between turn three and turn four. Replays showed the Spaniard cruised through the left hander of turn two and right-hander of turn three, but as he applied the throttle he spun around.

Despite a slight clip with the barrier, Sainz beached himself as he attempted to rejoin the circuit. After help from the track marshals to push the #55 Ferrari back onto the circuit, the Spaniard quickly returned to the pit lane.

the red flag stop was a brief one as the #55 Ferrari arrived back inside the pit lane, and the session quickly resumed with 10 minutes left.

As a result of the late runs, the drivers began to put in representative lap times on the leaderboard with Russell out in front ahead of Piastri and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, second and third fastest respectively.

That’s all for the article; F1 Hungarian GP: Russell fastest in FP1 as Perez crashes early on!

Read more Formula 1 here:

• Nyck de Vries breaks silence on Instagram following Alpha Tauri departure
• Three teams rumoured to have breached 2022 Cost Cap regulations
• Nicholas Latifi to study MBA after F1 exit
• F1 Hungarian Grand Prix: Ricciardo returns, Red Bull record and fight for second
• Nyck de Vries sacking: Was it too early for Alpha Tauri to let him go
• Daniel Ricciardo to replace Nyck de Vries for remainder of F1 season
• Antonio Felix Da Costa sympathises with Nyck de Vries after replacement rumours

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.