Crash and rain before Hungarian GP
Leclerc is outperforming Verstappen in F1 practice
07/21/2023, 6:30 p.m
Weak training from world championship leader Max Verstappen and the Red Bull team: The world champion is only eleventh in the success of Ferrari star Charles Leclerc despite new car components. Teammate Sergio Perez has an embarrassing accident on his first lap.
World champion Max Verstappen (Netherlands) initially took it easy before the Hungarian Grand Prix (Sunday, 3 p.m. / Sky) and let the competition go ahead in free practice. The Red Bull dominator, who recently had six wins in a row, ended up eleventh only in midfield – however, Verstappen only turned 17 laps in front of the gates of Budapest.
And so Ferrari star Charles Leclerc (1:17.686 minutes) was just fastest at the Hungaroring ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren (+0.015 seconds) and Pierre Gasly (+0.232 / Alpine). Nico Hülkenberg (Emmerich) was very satisfied with sixth (+0.372 / Haas), Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez (Mexico) only finished 18th after his accident in the first practice session.
Perez with “frustrating” accident
Ironically, Perez, who had recently come under pressure, crashed right at the beginning of the first practice session, after the 33-year-old came onto the grass next to the track while braking for turn five and crashed into the barriers. “I can’t believe it,” he radioed into the pits. The training was then interrupted and the teams did not gain much knowledge due to heavy rain.
The mishap comes at a bad time for Perez. After a strong start to the season, he is still second in the drivers’ standings behind Verstappen, but is now 99 points behind. In addition, “Checo” did not finish in the top 10 in the past five qualifying sessions – and that in the superior Red Bull.
Daniel Ricciardo is also breathing down his neck as a new competitor: the Australian takes over the cockpit of the Red Bull junior team AlphaTauri in the middle of the season from the sacked Nyck de Vries and is being traded as a potential successor to Perez. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner described the accident as “frustrating. It’s not the best start to the weekend.”