George Russell On Top After Sergio Perez Crash In Rain-Hit Hungary GP Session

George Russell topped the times for Mercedes ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri in Friday's rain-hit opening practice for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. In a wet session punctuated by crashes - including one by Red Bull's under-pressure Sergio Perez -- and red flags, Australian rookie Piastri clocked a best lap in 1min 38.795 sec to outpace Briton Russell by three tenths of a second. The Aston Martin of Lance Stroll was third quickest ahead of Lando Norris in the second McLaren, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas.

Defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes both chose not to run in the risky conditions.

Perez had earlier crashed on his opening installation lap, severely damaging the front of this car.

On a bright, but overcast day, the session began with an intense focus on Daniel Ricciardo's return to action with Alpha Tauri and the reaction of under-pressure Perez at Red Bull.

The Australian's big beaming smile was apparent in the early seconds of broadcasting as Russell led the pack out of the pit lane only for an immediate red flag as the luckless Perez lost control and crashed at Turn Five.

On his first installation lap, he dropped two wheels on the grass and spun off into the barriers, damaging the front quarter of his car and destroying the front wing.

"I cannot believe this," said Perez, who is bidding this weekend to end a run of poor qualifying peformances dating back five races to the Miami Grand Prix.

After a nine-minute delay, the session resumed with rain falling heavily and forcing the teams to pit their cars and wait for the storm to pass.

Hamilton made a brief foray to test the conditions on intermediates,