#HungarianGP FP1: @GeorgeRussell63 tops rain-soaked session. #F1

Russell Hungarian GP FP1 – Mercedes’ George Russell was quickest in a rain-soaked and red-flagged affected FP1 session at the Hungarian GP ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez suffers a heavy shunt.

 

 

Russell’s benchmark was a 1:38.795 set on the green side-walled intermediate rubber and was 0.353 seconds quicker than Piastri with Stroll a further 1.218 adrift of the Briton in third.

 

Before the 60-minute session got really going, it was red-flagged when Perez crashed on his opening timed flyer on the mediums – with the pack split across running that tyre and the softs.

 

With two minutes completed and before anyone registered a lap-time, Perez lost the rear of his RB19 racer after dipping his left-rear tyre on the outside grass through the turn five long right-hander.

 

It snapped away from the Mexican in a full 360-degree spin and was sent into the outside wall, which damaged the newly upgraded side-pods on its left side, along with both front corners.

 

The session was stopped for eight minutes as the Red Bull was recovered, after which most of the field re-emerged, but quickly found the conditions worsened as the rain hit.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was the first to post an effort whilst running the mediums, but as he reached the final corners where the rain was falling the heaviest. First, he came across Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas recovering from a spin and all the cars then returned to the pits.

 

This lead to a lengthy lull of track action – other than single sighting tours from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon, with Ferrari’s Sainz having a few scary moments at the turns six and seven chicane and at the turn 12 right hander at the beginning of the third sector before he pitted.

 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also toured out just before the midway point before he too returned to the garage, shortly after, which McLaren sent Lando Norris and Piastri out, just as the rain got heavier.

 

Piastri encountered a big sliding moment exiting the rapid turn four left-hander at the end of sector one, as both McLaren’s and Magnussen, who had joined them in the in the brief excursion, returned back to the pits.

 

Norris told his McLaren that he was not ready to pit at this stage with just over 25 minutes left on the clock as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also tried a lap on the inters, but Norris followed suit and returned to the pits like his team-mate.

 

Bottas emerged with 20 minutes remaining and declared the conditions “driveable”, as the Finn attempted the first hot-lap, which was met with cheers by the crowd as he flew down the main-straight.

 

Bottas, despite the rear of his C43 twitching through the rain-soaked Hungaroring, registered the opening benchmark of a 1:47.787.

 

Several more cars headed out on track, with the Williams Racing duo moved ahead with their first timed flyers – first Alexander Albon’s 1:47.707 and then Logan Sargeant’s 1:46.838 put the American into P1.

 

FP1 was then stopped again when Sainz spun accelerating onto the short straight between the quick, downhill turn three right-hander and clipped the wall on the inside lightly with both left-side corners of the SF-23.

 

The Spaniard tried to get going whilst facing backwards, but the Ferrari became beached on the kerb and had to be pushed by the marshalls under the red flags, when they did it, Sainz was able to return back to the pits and the SF-23 racer had the left-side of his front wing end-plate knocked off.

 

FP1 continued with 11 minutes left on the clock and most of the drivers came out – although many including championship leader Max Verstappen and Hamilton did not, which meant they ended the session without posting a lap-time.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg jumped in-front of Sargeant with his opening intermediate flyer with a 1:44.722 before that was trounced by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who set a 1:43.277 then Leclerc’s 1:42.909.

 

The times continued to fall as the drivers continued to circle on their shorter stints before the chequered flag was waved, with Alonso moving back into top spot ahead of the final five minutes with a 1:40.687.

 

In the last two minutes, Russell took P1 with a 1:40.440, which was beaten by Piastri’s 1:39.906, before the former reclaimed the top of the time-sheets just before the chequered flag.

 

Piastri’s final effort was a 1:39.154, but Russell kept on it and nearly before the session’s end, the Mercedes driver finally set the best time of opening practice, a 1:38.795.

 

Stroll rounded out the top three for Aston Martin and in-front of Norris, who relegated Alonso down to fifth.

 

Then followed Bottas and Leclerc, with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu able to head out and claim eighth spot in the classification late on after the Hinwil based-outfit had to investigate an electrical energy deployment issue on his C43 racer after the brief early dry running.

 

Sargeant and Hulkenberg completed the top ten.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Magnussen placed outside the top ten in 11th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who is 12th and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who took 13th.

 

Daniel Ricciardo, the aforementioned Sainz and Perez, Alpine pairing Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, reigning world champion Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton all did not register a lap-time.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways Hungarian Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1215/hungary/practice-1.html