The first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix was red flagged with 23 minutes remaining after Force India driver Sergio Perez was involved in a violent crash following a suspected suspension failure.
The Mexican driver thankfully walked away after he was pitched into the barrier and flipped upside-down, with his car coming to a halt the wrong way up some way down the track from the initial collision with the barrier.
Perez emerged from the fast turn 11 right-hander and travelled over the rumble strip on the outside of the corner when his right-rear wheel appeared to pitch inside and point the wrong way. His car immediately spun towards the inside of the corner and hit the Armco barrier nose-on, although Perez was able to scrub a fair amount of speed off after the initial impact.
Sergio Perez crash in pictures
As he made his way along the turf out of control, Perez’s car suddenly dug into the ground and flipped upside-down, with one of the detached front wheels getting trapped under the car and forcing it to flip onto its side before completely rolling over.
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Watch the video below:
Accidente de Sergio Pérez #Movistar+ pic.twitter.com/W76AAgJU0X
; WUILY PERICO 100% (@wuily40) July 24, 2015
The crowd burst into a round of applause when Perez emerged unscathed from the car and walked away unaided, although his team face a long day in rebuilding the car as it suffered extensive damage in the accident.
Sergio Perez in Thursday's driver press conference
The scenes come at a time when F1 is in mourning after the death of former Marussia driver Jules Bianchi last Friday due to the extensive head injuries he suffered in a freak accident at the Japanese Grand Prix last year.
A number of the current F1 drivers were in attendance at Bianchi’s funeral this week in his hometown of Nice in France, and a minute’s silence will be held before Sunday’s race in his memory.
