Power’s incident was the third of the day after 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi spun on the warm-up lane and four-time defending Indy winner Helio Castroneves spun out of the warm-up lane into the Turn 2 wall, prompting the test to be prematurely concluded.
The 2018 Indy 500 winner completed a 360-degree spin on the strip of grass that separates Turn 1 from pitlane exit. As he gathered up his Team Penske machine, its rear hung over the racing line at the apex of Turn 1 when Herta arrived on the scene.
The Andretti Autosport driver moved up half a lane to avoid contact, but that put his car into a drift that became a spin. Herta’s car tagged the outside wall with its rear wing, and slid broadside with wheels locked down to the inside of Turn 2, where he was narrowly avoided by a closely following Marcus Ericsson.
Power said that the incident “scared the absolute daylights out of me” and brought to mind Alex Zanardi’s life-changing accident at Lausitzring in 2001 when the Italian spun exiting the pits and was hit at full speed by Alex Tagliani.
“Scary, scary,” Power said. “It’s like my worst nightmare.
“It’s something you always think about as a driver because you’ve seen it. You saw what happened to Zanardi and it’s just something you’re aware of, and you’re cautious of during practice, and I just couldn’t believe it caught me out.”
Power explained that he had “zero warning” that his car was about to break away having “been taking it easy on the apron” after the day’s earlier incidents.
“I told the engineer, ‘Look at the video, we’ve got to understand what happened there, because I don’t understand what happened,’” said the Australian.
“It’s just a bad situation. I want to know what I did wrong because I never want that to happen again.
Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
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