Sergio Perez, Force India, Hungaroring, 2015

Hamilton on top after Perez crash stops practice

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix first practice

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Sergio Perez, Force India, Hungaroring, 2015Sergio Perez was unhurt after a rolling his Force India during the first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Force India driver spun at the exit of turn 11 when a right-rear suspension component appeared to fail on his car. The VJM08 hit the barrier on the inside of the track nose-first, then flipped onto its roll-hoop after it rebounded. Perez quickly told his team he was OK before climbing out of the car.

The crash occurred almost one hour into the session and the red flags were out for over quarter of an hour while the car was recovered. Practice eventually resumed with 26 minutes remaining.

At that point Lewis Hamilton was still leading the times with the 1’25.291, but soon after returning to the track he took over a tenth of his best time. Nico Rosberg also improved, ending up little more than a tenth of a second off his team mate.

However a further red flag caused another interruption. Kimi Raikkonen’s front wing failed at the exit of turn 12, showering the track with debris.

The incident left Raikkonen and the team puzzled at first. “I have a flat front-left,” he radioed in, “I don’t know what happened I lost a piece of front wing…” Race engineer David Greenwood informed him he’d experienced a “very sudden puncture – it was almost instant Kimi, sorry, we didn’t see that”. While his car returned to the pits minus its front wing the marshals began another clean-up operation.

This was completed with little more than half a minute remaining, allowing some drivers to head out for a quick extra couple of laps and a practice start or, in Pastor Maldonado’s case, an aerodynamic cruise test. Lotus were playing catch-up having done little running in the opening minutes of the session, and Jolyon Palmer failed to set a time before.

His fellow GP2 champion Fabio Leimer had his first run in an official F1 session, ending up 19th for Manor.

Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’25.141 18
2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’25.250 0.109 22
3 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’25.812 0.671 23
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1’26.053 0.912 20
5 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1’26.070 0.929 17
6 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’26.395 1.254 14
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Renault 1’26.727 1.586 25
8 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’26.776 1.635 14
9 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1’26.825 1.684 19
10 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1’26.934 1.793 27
11 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’27.272 2.131 16
12 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1’27.308 2.167 17
13 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1’27.317 2.176 11
14 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’27.381 2.240 19
15 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1’27.409 2.268 24
16 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’27.732 2.591 23
17 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1’28.568 3.427 9
18 28 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari 1’29.693 4.552 17
19 42 Fabio Leimer Manor-Ferrari 1’30.631 5.490 18
20 30 Jolyon Palmer Lotus-Mercedes 4

First practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’25.141

+0.109 Nico Rosberg – 1’25.250

+0.671 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’25.812

+0.912 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’26.053

+0.929 Daniil Kvyat – 1’26.070

+1.254 Sebastian Vettel – 1’26.395

+1.586 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’26.727

+1.635 Sergio Perez – 1’26.776

+1.684 Valtteri Bottas – 1’26.825

+1.793 Max Verstappen – 1’26.934

+2.131 Fernando Alonso – 1’27.272

+2.167 Jenson Button – 1’27.308

+2.176 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’27.317

+2.240 Felipe Massa – 1’27.381

+2.268 Felipe Nasr – 1’27.409

+2.591 Marcus Ericsson – 1’27.732

+3.427 Pastor Maldonado – 1’28.568

+4.552 Will Stevens – 1’29.693

+5.490 Fabio Leimer – 1’30.631

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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9 comments on “Hamilton on top after Perez crash stops practice”

  1. Bits and pieces are falling off the cars…

  2. The way Kimi’s wing got disintegrated was rather interesting to observe. The upside is that the marshals got enough pieces to pocket as souvenirs, I hope. Can’t imagine Ferrari requesting every bit of that explosion to be returned.

  3. Lotus miss 30 minutes FP1 because Pirelli refuse to supply tyres.
    They reached agreement about 50 minutes before the start of this session!

    1. Then they had to be heated, was the delay apparently @ruliemaulana

      Can’t imagine how desperate things must be at Lotus.

    2. Damn! They really are in a mess if they even had trouble getting tyres.

  4. Practice eventually resumed with 26 minutes remaining.

    Should this be 16 minutes?

    A couple of strange failures this session with car parts failing. I’m glad the Perez incident wasn’t any worse than what it was.

  5. Does anyone know if Williams used the new front wing? If so, on which car? (There was a bit of a gap between Massa and Bottas)

    1. @juan-fanger Apparently whoever is ahead in the championship (Bottas) gets first go with just one part available, which is then reversed for the second time that happens (Massa) and so on.

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