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Colton Herta has blasted the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team for its “photo op” at the beginning of Thursday Indianapolis 500 practice that was blamed for Herta crashing.
The Andretti Autosport driver described it as the “stupidest thing I’ve ever seen”.
In the opening practice of the Indy 500 week Team Penske ran all four of its cars together on track to set up a picture, and it appeared the Rahal team – the reigning winner of the event with Takuma Sato – did a similar thing in Thursday’s early running.
However, the three-wide salute from Rahal forced Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Paretta Autosport’s Simona de Silvestro to slow down exiting Turn 4.
Hope the photo came out good lol @RLLracing 😬😬😬 https://t.co/fTcMeQcwys
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) May 20, 2021
Herta came at full speed and had to hit the wall to avoid crashing into the back of McLaughlin, who managed to swerve over at the last minute.
“It turns out going three-wide for a photo op during IndyCar practice isn’t an ideal situation,” Herta told IndyCar Radio.
“They’re going 100 miles per hour on the front straight while guys are running 220, whoever’s in charge of that at Rahal is a complete idiot.
“It’s just, risking everybody’s life out here, the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.
“Luckily we got away with it easy.
“The car should be okay, I just pancaked the wall lightly, and luckily wasn’t able to take out Scott in anyway so we’ll make sure the cars okay.
“I’m not mad at Scott or Simona, it’s those Rahal guys that completely ruined everything. It’s crazy.”
Both Herta and McLaughlin took minimal time for repairs and have both notched over 20 laps.
McLaughlin told NBC of his side of the story: “I think the Rahal dudes were trying to get a nice little photo there.
“Colton was coming fast, and I just checked up in front of him. It’s hard to check up around here. Just had no idea. I apologised to him, he apologised back to me, so a bit of a 50-50 thing.
“I really don’t know exactly what happened. It was the first lap of the morning, and I was just trying to get around and do some pit stop practice.
“At least the car is very fast. Fast Chevy all week. Just a little bit of miscommunication between everyone.”
Just as practice on Thursday due to a close, news emerged that the RLL team had been penalised for ‘improper conduct’ due to the incident.
All three cars, of Santino Ferrucci, Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato, will miss the first 30 minutes of Fast Friday practice as a result of the penalty.
Asked if he felt if it was appropriate, Herta said: “Yeah, it’s appropriate. I understand what they were trying to do.
“It probably just wasn’t the right place or time to do it.
“Hopefully we learn from this. I’m ready to focus forward on tomorrow and just kind of leave this in today.”
Penske was not penalised for its similar photo shoot on Tuesday, because it came during a designated install-lap portion of the session at the beginning of the first day of practice.
RLLR team owner Bobby Rahal cited Penske’s actions as he expressed frustration at the penalty.
“We were several hundred yards ahead of some other cars. It was a pit stop session and it was the first lap,” Rahal told the Associated Press.
“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.
“We’re going to miss 30 minutes of practice, you mean for what Roger did the day before, or Roger’s team I should say?
“We were at the start-finish line when it all happened and from what I understand, the Penske guys were going slower, so they didn’t have a problem with it.
“I’m disappointed with it and I’ll talk to IndyCar about it.”
The penalty likely won’t affect Ferrucci, who was involved in the week’s first major crash later in Wednesday’s session and was taken to hospital for checks on a “minor” left foot injury. A timeline on when he or the car will be ready to get back on track is yet to be confirmed.
