Colton Herta rolls over on “Carb-Day” at Indianapolis in final practice session before 106th Indy 500 – Crash by Malukas – Best time for Kanaan
Two hours late and ultimately only an hour and a half long instead of two, but it took place: The final practice for the Indianapolis 500 of the 2022 IndyCar season.
On Friday, the traditional “Carb-Day”, it had rained again over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When the final practice session should have started at 11:00 am local time (17:00 CEST), the track was dried out.
After a delay of two hours, the IndyCars took over. It was not a 120-minute session. But the 33 Indy 500 participants still had 90 minutes to check out the handling of their cars in the heavy traffic.
Colton Herta with rollover and early all-clear
There were two incidents during the hour and a half of track time. Both ended well. The most spectacular was caused by Colton Herta (Andretti-Honda) with just over 20 minutes to go. In Turn 1 of the 2.5-mile oval, Herta went into oversteer while driving just behind Takuma Sato (Coyne-Honda). Hitting the outer SAFER barrier, Herta’s car was lifted out and overturned.
With the underbody up, the car eventually came to rest in the Turn 2 area. Remarkably, even before it had come to a stop, Herta gave the all-clear over the radio that “everything was fine”. Apart from the fact that the Andretti crew will have to call in the replacement car for the race on Sunday, the rollover had no major consequences.
Colton Herta AIRBORNE!
Herta winds upside down in this crash during CarbDay practice for the Indy500 He has been medically cleared. pic.twitter.com/SPHC735E7F
– Indy500 on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 27, 2022
“I was probably just a bit too fast and then I got under air,” said Herta after the routine check in the medical centre in the infield of the Oval. Undaunted, the 22-year-old Andretti driver said: “Now we have to get the replacement car out. But I’m not too worried about the race. This should be a good car as well. “
Crash of David Malukas after collision
The other incident had occurred halfway through the session. On the start/finish straight, the cars of David Malukas (Coyne-Honda) and Santino Ferrucci (Dreyer/Reinbold-Chevrolet) had made slight contact after Malukas tried to pass Ferrucci on the inside before Turn 1.
Contact between @malukasdavid and @SantinoFerrucci puts Malukas into the turn 1 wall.
Malukas has been cleared from the @IU_Health Emergency Medical centre at @IMSINDYCAR Indy500 pic. twitter.com/MhLsZX3Lwi
– NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 27, 2022
Malukas was then unable to avoid a spin including contact with the outer track boundary. It was a comparatively harmless incident and the second of ultimately three in the entire driving session since the start of practice (17 May). The first had occurred on Monday in the form of a crash by Dalton Kellett (Foyt-Chevrolet).
Ferrucci was found to have attempted the collision with Malukas and had to spend the final minutes of the 90-minute session in pit lane as punishment.
Best time of the day for Tony Kanaan in the slipstream
The fastest time of the day on this final day of practice was again achieved with the assistance of a slipstream, and that was by Tony Kanaan (Ganassi-Honda). However, the lap time of 39.628 seconds (227.114 miles per hour) set by Kanaan says little. (Result: Final practice (Carb-Day) for the 106th Indy 500)
For the 500-mile race (200 laps) on Sunday, according to the weather forecast, sunshine and higher temperatures are to be expected than on Friday, which was very cloudy and when the thermometer did not exceed 18 degrees Celsius.