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Stefan Wilson has been taken to hospital after a huge crash with Katherine Legge in practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Legge was caught out by a number of cars slowing ahead and crashed into the back of Wilson, and he in turn went straight on into the Turn 2 wall before coming to a rest.
A scary incident in today's #Indy500 practice.@katherinelegge has been seen and released following the incident.#INDYCAR // @IMS pic.twitter.com/M0kqrAjZl9
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 22, 2023
Legge’s car hit the wall further down.
It was immediately clear Wilson would take longer to extricate from his car and the AMR Safety Crew brought a stretcher before slowly removing him from his Dreyer & Reinbold with Cusick Motorsports car.
He waved to fans from the stretcher and IndyCar’s medical director Dr Julia Vaizer confirmed he is communicating and has continued to do so.
“I can tell you that he’s doing well, he’s being taken to local hospital for enhanced imaging and further evaluation,” she added. “He’s in good spirits.”
Legge was clearly shaken from the crash but has been cleared by the staff at the infield care centre.
“The cars in front were all checking up, and I lifted as much as I could and downshifted, hit the brakes but it wasn’t enough as they were checking up,” she said. “I got into the back of Stefan and we both ended up in the wall.
“It’s another blow to the team. After yesterday, those guys don’t deserve it.”
She was the highest qualifying Rahal Letterman Lanigan car in 30th and the only one of the team to avoid bump day, where her team-mate Graham Rahal was bumped out of the field.
Wilson qualified 24th for the race.
The two-hour Monday session in which the crash happened is one of two scheduled for the week between qualifying and the race, with the other being the traditional ‘Carb Day’ final practice on Friday.
Twelfth-placed qualifier Will Power set the fastest lap of the Monday practice
The Team Penske driver headed Ganassi trio Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato and the polesitter for Sunday’s race, Alex Palou.
Christian Lundgaard – whose RLL team-mate Graham Rahal was bumped out of the field yesterday and will miss the race – completed almost a half-race distance with 90 laps run, and was 17th fastest overall.
