Perez blasted for “rookie error” | Pressure “heightened” by Ricciardo comeback

Just several minutes after the start of the session, Perez lost control of his Red Bull RB19 after he dipped his front-left tyre onto the grass, pirouetting into the barrier. 

It was a disastrous start to the weekend in Hungary, particularly given the build up to it was centred around Daniel Ricciardo’s return and the Australian eying up a return to Red Bull in the future.

Speaking after FP1 during Sky’s coverage, Brundle was puzzled by Perez’s latest blunder.

“I can't get my head around that,” he said. “It is a rookie error. I think back to his brilliant victories earlier this year in Saudi and in Azerbaijan, and his utterly brilliant victory last year in Singapore on a drying track, one of the most challenging races I've seen in a long time, where he was perfect. And then, he does that.

“I can only assume it's the pressure. He didn't just clip the edge of the grass or the white line, he was on the grass by a metre or so. I can't get my head around it at all.

“Sergio has been so rock solid all through his career. He's not been that dynamic and goes on the missing list sometimes, but my goodness is he is fast, consistent and keeps the tyres intact. All of these errors are so inconsistent with how his F1 career has been.”

Fellow F1 pundit Danica Patrick described Perez’s mistake as a “misjudgement” while acknowledging that the pressure has been upped on him to perform following Ricciardo’s arrival at AlphaTauri.

"I'm sure he's been feeling a lot of pressure from different directions, but it's obviously been heightened by the Daniel Ricciardo situation and the potential of him going to the team in the future,” she said. “Sergio just does make mistakes here and there, it's a little bit more in his nature.

“I really think this [incident] was a scenario where he wasn't up to speed, and when you're not up to speed you're just not in that hyper focused spot you need to be in to not make those mistakes. They happen more easily when you're not trying as hard. It was a misjudgement.”