Hamilton finishes quickest in both Hungarian GP practices

Mexican Sergio Perez scrambled free from the wreckage of a heavy crash that left his Force India upside down on the track, halting first practice for the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday.

Force India is still unsure of the cause of the suspension problem that led to Sergio Perez’s crash during Formula 1 practice at the Hungaroring, as the investigation continues into the night.

Force India parked the other auto of Nico Hulkenberg for the rest of the first session and also opted to sit out second practice. After finishing second in the morning session, he dropped to fourth in the afternoons second run, a distant.

After removing the vehicle and clearing the circuit, the session re-started only to be stopped again when Finn Kimi Raikkonen ran wide across the kerbs at Turn 12 and the front wing fell off his Ferrari.

“I don’t think you will ever be able to take that away from racing, and if they did, I wonder if it would have the same excitement”.

It feels hotter than the sauna out there.

“I watched it with my dogs in an air-conditioned unit so it wasn’t too bad”.

Although delicately poised, the title race remains an internal tussle at Mercedes, with Hamilton leading Rosberg by 17 points.

In the searing Budapest heat it was Lewis Hamilton, a victor last time out at the British Grand Prix, who maintained his sizzling form.

Perez climbed out of the vehicle and told his team he was unhurt. “We all know. It can happen in any practice, any day, as soon as you get into the vehicle, you know that the risk is very high but it doesn’t really change anything”.

In a similar vein to Federer and his tennis contemporaries, Hamilton spoke from the sun-blazed paddock with a towel nearby as a heatwave rippling through central Europe saw temperatures reach 35 degrees at the Hungaroring on Friday.

In FP2 when the quicker soft rubber was used, Rosberg found himself seven tenths of a second down on Hamilton, with the Mercedes pair split by Red Bull duo Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo.

Their strong display was dampened however when Ricciardo suffered a Renault engine failure. In a season where track position is so vital given the difficultly to overtake with the aerodynamic set-ups of the auto, the German continually starting behind his teammate is hurting him.

Asked about seeing the two Red Bulls separating him from Rosberg, Hamilton smiled.

A number of the drivers, many of whom attended the Frenchman’s funeral on Tuesday, will have stickers on their crash helmets reading “Ciao Jules” or “JB17”.

And McLaren’s Jenson Button has lauded the “band of brothers” mentality displayed by his peers in the wake of Bianchi’s passing.