Sergio Perez crash: Force India driver escapes violent crash unharmed after flipping upside-down following suspected suspension failure

Perez walked away unscathed after a nasty accident saw first practice red flagged

Jack de Menezes
Friday 24 July 2015 21:57 BST
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Sergio Perez flips upside-down during Hungary practice
Sergio Perez flips upside-down during Hungary practice

The first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix was red flagged with 23 minutes remaining after Force India driver Sergio Perez was involved in a violent crash following a suspected suspension failure.

The Mexican driver thankfully walked away after he was pitched into the barrier and flipped upside-down, with his car coming to a halt the wrong way up some way down the track from the initial collision with the barrier.

Perez emerged from the fast turn 11 right-hander and travelled over the rumble strip on the outside of the corner when his right-rear wheel appeared to pitch inside and point the wrong way. His car immediately spun towards the inside of the corner and hit the Armco barrier nose-on, although Perez was able to scrub a fair amount of speed off after the initial impact.

As he made his way along the turf out of control, Perez’s car suddenly dug into the ground and flipped upside-down, with one of the detached front wheels getting trapped under the car and forcing it to flip onto its side before completely rolling over.

Watch the video below:

The crowd burst into a round of applause when Perez emerged unscathed from the car and walked away unaided, although his team face a long day in rebuilding the car as it suffered extensive damage in the accident.

Sergio Perez in Thursday's driver press conference

The scenes come at a time when F1 is in mourning after the death of former Marussia driver Jules Bianchi last Friday due to the extensive head injuries he suffered in a freak accident at the Japanese Grand Prix last year.

A number of the current F1 drivers were in attendance at Bianchi’s funeral this week in his hometown of Nice in France, and a minute’s silence will be held before Sunday’s race in his memory.

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