New Red Bull Formula 1 junior Patricio O’Ward walked away from a crash on the third day of practice for the Indianapolis 500 in which his car was briefly airborne.
Carlin driver O’Ward was running behind three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves when he appeared to turn in too sharply at Turn 2 – as Felix Rosenqvist had done a day earlier – 80 minutes into the seven-hour practice session.
The tail of O’Ward’s car snapped around and he spun 270 degrees before making his first impact with the outside wall with his left-front wheel, and was then knocked sideways so the car was at 90 degrees to the intended direction of travel.
The car got airborne until it was at 90 degrees to the track surface, before crashing back down the right way up.
O’Ward was able to step out unaided and half an hour later was cleared by IndyCar’s medical team to drive again.