The car of Scott McLaughlin (L) is almost rear-ended by the car of Colton Herta (R). Photo / Twitter
The car of Scott McLaughlin (L) is almost rear-ended by the car of Colton Herta (R). Photo / Twitter
An attempted photo opportunity almost went terribly wrong on the opening lap of Indianapolis 500 practice on Friday when Colton Herta crashed into both Scott McLaughlin and the wall, oblivious at more than 300kmh to the Instagram moment ahead.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan had its three drivers slowly fan across the Indianapolis Motor Speedway frontstretch at the start of Friday's practice for a planned picture. IndyCar said it was unaware of a Rahal photo shoot and so the track was "hot" for the entire field.
McLaughlin and Simona de Silvestro saw the three Rahal cars ahead as they sped through the corner and both immediately slowed to roughly 170 mph. Herta could not see the Rahal cars and it was too late when he noticed McLaughlin and de Silvestro had slowed.
He was barreling through at 354kmh and the closing rate was impossible to not run over McLaughlin. Herta instead darted high around him and bounced off the wall, right back into McLaughlin. Both Herta and McLaughlin then had to pit for repairs.
Colton Herta threads the needle as the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team lines its cars up three-wide down the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's main straight. Photo / Twitter
"That could have been nasty," the broadcast's commentary team could be heard saying while viewing a replay of the crash.
"Even if Colton had made it through there he still has three-wide Rahal cars and you wonder, where's the spotter in that situation?"
Moments after the crash, when Herta was interviewed on the broadcast in pit lane, he appeared not to have known about the Rahal team's photo opp and was more frustrated with McLaughlin.
"I'm going 220 mph (355kmh) coming around the corner, and these idiots are doing 170. I don't know what the hell they're doing there. I'm just glad we were able to keep the car in a little bit of one piece. It's just ridiculous.
"You just can't slam on the brakes there. I don't even know. We'll get back out there."
Herta said his spotter had not alerted him to any slowed cars — "No, otherwise, I would have slowed down" — but later defended his spotters on Twitter, saying they could have done nothing to help. "For anyone giving it to my spotters, I'd like to see you react to 100 mph closing speeds," he wrote.
"It happened so fast, I didn't think I could get to the left," Herta told the broadcast. "I saw a little bit of a lane and was hoping Scott's spotter would tell him, and he did right at the last second. He probably moved over half a car length, and it was just enough for me to scrape by against the wall and bobble between him and the wall."
The car of Scott McLaughlin (L) is almost rear-ended by the car of Colton Herta (R). Photo / Twitter
Later, after the broadcast captured Herta and McLaughlin talking things over and clearing the air in pit lane, Herta came out swinging against the Rahal team's publicity stunt.
"Whoever's in charge of that at Rahal is a complete idiot and is just risking everybody's lives out here. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen," Herta told IndyCar radio.
Meanwhile, McLaughlin himself took to Twitter to voice his side of the story in stoic Kiwi fashion.
IndyCar at the end of the session announced Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci will all be parked for the first 30 minutes of Friday's critical practice, when the engine power is boosted and teams get their first true look at their speeds ahead of qualifying.
"We were several hundred yards ahead of some other cars. It was a pit stop session and it was the first lap," team owner Bob Rahal said. "I think maybe some people shouldn't be in such a rush and the spotters maybe should have done a better job. It's disappointing something that happened a quarter-mile behind us or thereabouts and we've got to pay a price for it."
The fourth day of practice ended with McLaughlin running 13th fastest on track with fellow Kiwi Scott Dixon running fifth-fastest. Qualifying for the great race will take place on Sunday and Monday NZ time.
