James Hinchcliffe has been hospitalised for leg surgery following a huge accident during practice for the Indianapolis 500 on Monday morning.
IndyCar reported that the Canadian is awake and alert following the crash.
The Schmidt driver lost control of his car in Turn 3 after apparently suffering a mechanical failure.
He was pitched hard into the outside wall, where the right side of his car was torn off.
The car briefly tilted onto its side before skidding to a halt along the back chute. It came to rest right-side-up.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Hinchcliffe was communicating with safety workers, but that he needed assistance to get out of the car.
He has been taken to a nearby hospital, where he is undergoing surgery to an injury on his upper thigh. Practice was stopped immediately after the accident, and was later abandoned.
Hinchcliffe’s accident is the fifth major crash at Indy in the past week, and the second involving a Honda after Pippa Mann’s accident last Wednesday.
On Sunday, the series responded to Ed Carpenter’s crash during morning practice by introducing late changes to the event’s technical regulations to slow the cars down for qualifying.
The other accidents were suffered by Josef Newgarden on Friday and Helio Castroneves two days earlier.
Hinchcliffe had qualified 24th for Sunday’s 99th running of the Indy 500.
