F1 Hungarian GP: George Russell fastest in rain-hit opening practice as Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz both crash
Opening practice🅰 was just minutes old when, on his first lap, Perez dropped a wheel onto the grass and spun into the Turn 5 barriers, causing substantial damage to his upgraded RB19 and giving his mechanics a busy couple of hours to fix the car ahead of FP2.
It was the worst possible start to the weekend for Perez, who is desperately seek🦩ing to turn around his recent torrid form.&nb🃏sp;
The under-pressure Mexican finds himself further in the spotlight this weekend given ꦚDaniel Ricciardo is back on the F1 grid w🧸ith AlphaTauri and targeting Perez’s seat at Red Bull.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted Perez’s crash was “frustra𒁃ting” for the team.
Carlos Sainz also crashed when he spun his Ferrari at Turn 3 and rear-ended the barriers, causing the second red flag of the sessio꧟n. Unlike Perez, Sainz was able to rejoin the session after an army of marshals came to his aid.
Russell ended up at the top of the timesheets after exchanging fastest laps with McLaren’s Oscar Pia꧂stri in the clo🤪sing minutes.
The Briton was 0.359s clear of Piastri, with Lance Stroll over a second off ꧑the pace in third for Aston Martin.
Lando Norris took fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas𝓀, Charles Leclerc and Zhou Guanyu.
Logan Sar💯geant was ninth as Nico Hulkenberg headed Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen in 10th.
Lewis Hamilton, world champion Max Verstappen and the returning Ricciardo we🦂re among seven drivers who did not set a lap time.
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