FP1 & FP2 - Hungarian GP report: Force India Mercedes (2)

Sahara Force India’s day of practice at the Hungaroring was cut short as the team suffered a suspension failure on Sergio Perez’s car. The failure caused the Mexican to crash on the exit of turn 11, resulting in significant damage to the bodywork, wings and floor. As a precaution, the team chose not to run either Sergio or Nico Hulkenberg in the afternoon session. The team is working hard to understand the cause of the failure and find a solution ahead of Saturday’s free practice session.

Nico Hülkenberg

“It’s difficult to say much following such a short day. I felt the car was working quite well, but my first run wasn’t particularly smooth and my second run was brought to an end with the red flag. It means we will have a bit more work to do in the morning and we will be limited on data. Hopefully the team can find a solution to the issue on Sergio’s car.”

Sergio Perez

“It was a very positive session up until the accident. We managed to get a good read on the balance and made some useful set-up changes that took us in the right direction. Unfortunately we had the failure on the rear suspension, which ended our day early. It has cost us a lot of track time, but hopefully we can recover tomorrow to minimise the impact it will have on our final result this weekend. I still believe we can have a strong qualifying session so I’m optimistic for the rest of the weekend.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer

“It’s been a challenging day as we try to understand the right rear suspension failure on Sergio’s car. The accident cut short our morning and we opted to withdraw from the afternoon session as a precaution until we had a clear understanding of the problem. Those investigations remain ongoing and will continue this evening to ensure we can resume running on Saturday. Up until the accident, the morning had looked quite promising for both drivers. We had some aero measurement devices fitted to the cars and carried out some work with the medium tyres. Losing the afternoon puts us on the back foot, but I’m optimistic we can recover some of the lost ground tomorrow to be ready for qualifying.”