INDIANAPOLIS — The first crash of this year’s Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway involved second-place starter Alexander Rossi and sixth-place starter Pato O’Ward, 28 minutes into Monday’s post-qualifying practice session.
Rossi’s No. 20 ECR Chevrolet spun in the middle of Turn 2 and backed into the wall. Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet hit Rossi’s Chevrolet in the gearbox, pitching the car into the air. Romain Grosjean’s No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda was also involved as other cars scattered across the track to avoid the debris.
“I saw smoke and debris up front and tried to avoid that and spun,” Grosjean said. “We have to rebuild the race car and that is tough because we had a good car.
“We’re good. We’ll rebuild it and be back on Friday.”
Grosjean was referring to Friday’s final practice session on Carb Day.
O’Ward was also seen and released from the IU Health Care Center.
“I’m OK, just feel bad for my car,” O’Ward said. “Wrong place, wrong time. When you are going at those speeds and run the brakes, I hit the brakes and couldn’t do much to avoid it.
“I’m glad Alex and Romain are all right, but man, sucks as well.”
Before Rossi had a chance to speak to the media after leaving the care center, ECR was rolling the crashed car back to the team’s garage area in Gasoline Alley. The team will switch to his backup car to try to get it on track in time before Monday’s two-hour practice session was completed, either as scheduled or early because of rain.
Rossi was the second-fastest qualifier with a four-lap average of 231.990 mph in Sunday’s Fast Six. O’Ward was last in the Fast Six and will start sixth at 230.442 mph as his four-lap average. Grosjean is slated to start 24th after a four-lap average 229.791 mph.
None of the drivers will lose positions in the 33-car starting lineup because of the crash, according to IndyCar rules.
When practice began at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, heavy rain was building up to the west, and one could feel that in the air. But at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was dry with heavy overcast skies, an ambient temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a track temperature of 110.2 degrees F.
It didn’t take long for the 2.5-mile oval to have action as 30 of the 33 cars in the field were already on track just five minutes into the session. Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global had the fastest lap in the opening 10 minutes at 224.376 miles per hour in the No. 28 Honda followed by 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda at 224.352 mph.
At 1:10 p.m., Helio Castroneves No. 06 Honda had a cut tire and the yellow light came on for the first caution for a track inspection.
A few minutes later, the track went green but at 1:28 p.m. Eastern Time, the first crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month occurred in Turn 2 as mentioned above.
The green flag waved at 1:49 pm to resume practice.
The latest on Rossi came at 2:57 p.m. ET when Dr. Julia Vaizer, IndyCar’s Medical Director, revealed that Rossi is being transported to IU Health Methodist Hospital for further evaluation.
