Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Perez shaken by 'dramatic accident'

Sergio Perez admits he "was a bit scared" when his car went upside down as the result of a crash during FP1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

A failure on the right rear corner of Perez's car saw him pitched in to the wall on the exit of Turn 11, damaging the front of his Force India. A tethered wheel then wedged under the chassis and rolled the car, leaving Perez upside down on the track. While able to climb out unaided and unharmed, Perez says he was worried when the car turned over.

"It was quite a dramatic accident, losing the car at that kind of speed," Perez said. "The impact was not that bad, but when I rolled over I was a bit scared. Getting out of the car was quite a challenge, but thanks to God nothing happened. I am here and looking forward to tomorrow.

"We are still trying to find out, but we can see the rear suspension bent out. We are still analysing to make sure we can run for the next day.

"At that point, I didn’t know about the suspension. It was a very strange accident. I was on the Astroturf and suddenly I lost the car. The Astroturf was very dirty at the time but looking at the video I can see the rear suspension just breaks."

And Perez believes Force India was right not to run again on Friday as it investigates the cause of the failure.

"The risk is always there and obviously the team has plenty of information to analyse. I think we made the right decision not to run with Nico until we solve the issue."

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Click here for a gallery of Sergio Perez's crash in FP1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix

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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.