George Russell was fastest in a wet first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver set a 39.652 on intermates to put himself just over three and a half ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, they set there fastest times right at the end of the session.
The showery conditions in Budapest resulted in a session where only eleven drivers setting a time. Fernando Alonso had been third up until the closing minutes of the session, he was then beaten by Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll. The conditions meaning most of the running not reprehensive.
Stroll spilt the two McLaren’s, he was nearly a second behind Piastri and ahead of Lando Norris by two and a half seconds. But despite the conditions, the upgrades introduced in recent races the team are making some progress to return to the front.
Sergio Perez was however the biggest casualty of the session, the Red Bull driver failing to set a time. Perez went off on his first timed lap, he dipped his left tyre onto the grass, which immediately sent him into a spin and into the outside wall.
The Mexican said on the radio “I cannot believe this”, already going into this weekend the pressure has been raised further. Perez has failed to make it through to Q3 at the last five races, but the return of Daniel Ricciardo to Alpha Tauri is seen as an audition for the second Red Bull seat.
This follows the implosion of Perez’s early-season ambition of challenging team-mate Verstappen for the championship has collapsed. Ricciardo has replaced Nyck de Vries who was sacked by Red Bull last week following poor results. But given the conditions the Australian didn’t set a time.
Perez, who has a Red Bull contract for 2024, said on Thursday that Ricciardo’s return “doesn’t change anything” for him, insisting that his future was “in my hands”.
Team principal Christian Horner has said that he believed Perez’s problem was that he had been putting too much pressure on himself, and added after the British Grand Prix that Perez “just needs a clean weekend”.
Valtteri Bottas put his Alfa Romeo seventh, the Finn going just over a tenth faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with his teammate Guanyu Zhou eighth. Zhou was half a second faster than the Williams of Logan Sargeant with Nico Hulkenberg.
Hulkenberg was two tenths faster than Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen. Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon were the only other drivers to set a time, the Alpha Tauri going nearly two tenths faster than the Williams,
The other drama of note was Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari driver caused the second red flag. Sainz spun when coming out of Turn Three, before the rear of his his car made contact with the wall. The damage to the front wing but was unable to restart himself because he was beached on the kerb. The incident damaged Sainz’s front wing.
Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was another driver to fall foul of the conditions, also damaging a front wing with a spin. The incident wasn’t caught on camera but he was seen lipping back to the pits missing the right side of his front wing.
