Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Hamilton tops FP1 disrupted by big Perez crash

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the opening practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix but the session was halted due to a big crash for Sergio Perez.

Perez suffered a failure on the right rear corner of his car exiting Turn 11 and hit the barrier, with one of the front tyres then folding under the car and causing him to roll. With the Force India coming to rest upside down, Perez was fortunately able to climb out of the car unaided and was deemed unhurt after a brief visit to the medical centre.

The incident saw the session red flagged for more than 15 minutes as marshals fixed the barrier and recovered Perez's car, resulting in a busy end to FP1. Hamilton had been top at the time of the stoppage and retained the position on a 1:25.141, ending the session 0.109s clear of team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The session ended with a second red flag after Kimi Raikkonen's front wing failed exiting Turn 12. The Ferrari was accelerating out of the corner when the wing dropped and folded under the car, leaving debris on the track which . Raikkonen was able to return to the garage and finished third fastest, 0.671s slower than Hamilton.

Daniel Ricciardo was one of five drivers to return to the track in the final minute as the session restarted, ending the morning fourth quickest on a 1:26.053, just 0.027s quicker than team-mate Daniil Kvyat as Red Bull started the weekend in encouraging fashion.

Sebastian Vettel was sixth fastest for Ferrari, 1.2s off the pace during the disjointed session, with Carlos Sainz, Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen rounding out the top ten ahead of the two McLaren drivers.

It was a difficult morning for Lotus, with Pastor Maldonado completing only nine laps and Jolyon Palmer four. The team only received its tyre allocation in the final hour before FP1 after a payment issue with Pirelli, and Palmer was then only able to complete an installation lap before getting back out on track in the final minute of the session.

Fabio Leimer made his FP1 debut for Manor, finishing the opening 90 minutes almost a second adrift of Will Stevens, who was a similar distance behind Maldonado.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:25.141	18
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:25.250	23
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:25.812	23
04	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:26.053	19
05	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:26.070	17
06	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:26.395	14
07	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:26.727	25
08	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:26.776	14
09	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:26.825	18
10	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:26.934	27
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:27.272	16
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:27.308	17
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:27.317	11
14	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:27.381	18
15	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:27.409	24
16	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:27.732	23
17	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:28.568	8
18	Will Stevens	Manor	1:29.693	17
19	Fabio Leimer	Manor	1:30.631	18
20	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus		3

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.