Perez unscathed after flipping car in practice

Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull in Friday’s second free practice session ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

An Infiniti Red Bull F1 racing vehicle, as driven by Sebastian Vettel and last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix victor Daniel Ricciardo, will be on display, together with Ricciardo’s racing overalls and other driver memorabilia.

Hamilton won at the Hungaroring track in 2007, his debut season in F1, 2009, 2012 and 2013 and, with four wins, has the same total of victories as seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean, a close friend of Bianchi’s, had “JB” and “Never Forget” engraved on his helmet.

Hamilton and Rosberg will be aiming for their seventh one-two finish of the season on Sunday while Mercedes can set a Formula One record for going 10 successive races with both drivers on the podium.

His accident comes less than a week after the death of Bianchi, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a horrific crash in last year’s Japanese Grand Prix.

F1 tire supplier Pirelli tweeted “sarai sempre con noi” (you will always be with us) in honor of the French driver, who died at the age of 25, and was buried on Tuesday in his hometown of Nice.

There was a major scare when the red flag came out one hour into the session as Perez flipped his Force India auto on turn 11, with the rear skidding out from under him and sending him into the barriers and toppling over.

Nico Rosberg has revealed that he has “learnt to live” with a longstanding problem with the brakes on his Mercedes auto.

Fortunately, the 25-year-old was able to extract himself from the upturned VJM08 and, after a quick check-up at the circuit’s medical centre, walked back to Force India’s garage.

“Thumbs up, a big relief”, his Force India team tweeted.

A team statement read: “Sahara Force India will not take part in this afternoon’s second practice session at the Hungaroring as the team continues to investigate a suspension problem, which caused Sergio Perez to crash this morning”.

“Sergio’s vehicle suffered significant damage to the bodywork, wings and floor, and repairs are ongoing”. “The team will work hard to fully understand the cause of the failure and find a resolution in order to be ready for Saturday’s (third) practice session”.

As to whether it can be corrected, Rosberg said: “Difficult, because it’s taken so long and we’ve not really had much progress at all”.

The margin to Rosberg will be of great concern to the German who is 17 points behind Hamilton in the championship.

“I don’t know what happened”, said Raikkonen.