During the opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Sergio Perez of Red Bull had a dreadful crash a couple of minutes into the rain-affected FP1 session at the Hungaroring. On July 21, Friday afternoon, George Russell of Mercedes managed to top the timesheets at the end of the practice session, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
It was the first flying lap at the Hungaroring, when the Mexican driver Sergio Perez made a basic driving error, dipping his left tyres into the grass. This sent his RB19 into a spin and ultimately, into the tyre wall at turn five.
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In the immediate aftermath, the 33-year-old was quoted as saying to his team on the radio, “I cannot believe this.” He also remarked, “I clipped the grass, I think on braking, I just lost it.” With this surprising crash, Red Bull, who brought upgrades to their car to the Hungarian GP, including reprofiled side pods and new brake cooling, were not unable to see how they would fare on track.
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Notably, there has been extra scrutiny on the performances of Sergio Perez, who has failed to reach the Q3 stage in his last five F1 races with the Red Bull. Meanwhile, his teammate, Max Verstappen from the Netherlands, has been in some of his best form, achieving five consecutive poles and wins in Monaco, Spain, Canada, Austria, and Britain.
Danica Patrick, former NASCAR and IndyCar driver, who is currently an F1 pundit on Sky Sports, talked about the Sergio Perez crash and said, “That’s one of the worst as a driver. Letting your team down and knowing they are going to have to work so hard and just that doubt and frustration they have. You feel really guilty.”
