Sergio Perez blasted for ‘rookie error’ after accepting blame for Hungary shunt

Sergio Perez admitted that his crash at the start of FP1 in Hungary was very much an error on his part, one that baffled former driver turned pundit Martin Brundle.

Perez was not even able to clear the five-minute mark of the opening Hungarian GP practice session before encountering major drama.

Through the exit of Turn 4, he would drift too wide and dipped a wheel onto the grass, sending him into a spin and smashing into the barriers, making quite the mess of that Red Bull RB19 upgraded for the race weekend.

Sergio Perez accepts blame for the crash

Perez’s session ended there and then, though the Red Bull crew were able to get him back out on track for the second session of the day.

It was, nonetheless, an alarming incident for Perez, a driver very much under pressure to prove he is worthy of driving the RB19, which at the hands of team-mate Max Verstappen, remains the dominant challenger on the F1 2023 grid.

Perez meanwhile has not made Q3 across the past five races, scoring only one podium finish in that time.

“Just a mistake from my side,” Perez admitted to reports following the Friday running.

“But the guys have done a tremendous job to get the car together and get some good running in FP2.”

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Martin Brundle cannot get head around “rookie” Sergio Perez crash

Brundle was struggling to find an explanation for that Perez shunt, with the pressure he is under the only thought that comes to mind.

Said pressure on Perez has been ramped up with Daniel Ricciardo going from Red Bull reserve to driver for their sister team AlphaTauri as of the Hungarian GP for the remainder of the season.

And Brundle says such mistakes from Perez are not typical of his career in any way.

“I can’t get my head around that,” said theSky F1pundit. “It is a rookie error.

“我认为今年早些时候回到他的胜利,his brilliant victory in Saudi and Azerbaijan, his utterly brilliant victory last year in Singapore on a drying track in one of the most challenging races I have seen for a long time where he was perfect.

“And then he does that! I can only assume it’s pressure because he didn’t just clip the edge of the grass or the white line, he was on the grass by a metre or something and I can’t get my head around it at all.

“Red Bull want him glued to Verstappen’s gearbox when he’s not winning, maximising the points. What they don’t want him doing is throwing all the new upgraded sidepods and bits and pieces in the fence. Then they didn’t get much running in the other car in the dry when they’ve got quite an extreme cooling situation going on there with the sidepods.

“They needed to get up and running and the level that they’re at, the experience the drivers have got at Red Bull, they did not need that car in the wall.

“Sergio is so rock solid. All through his career, he’s not been that dynamic sometimes, he goes on the missing list sometimes, but my goodness is he fast, consistent, keeps the tyres intact. So all of these errors are so inconsistent with how his Formula 1 career has been.”

Perez goes into the Hungarian Grand Prix P2 in theDrivers’ standings, but now 99 points behind team-mate Verstappen.

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