Alexander Rossi has been ruled out of competing for the remainder of the weekend after suffering an injury in opening practice on the Streets of Toronto.
Running in the second group in the final stages of opening practice on Friday, Rossi was pounding the pavement around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street circuit at Exhibition Place when the left-front of his car clipped the tire barrier in Turn 8 and followed through into the wall at corner exit.
The incident brought the first of two red flags in the session, with Rossi seen removing his right glove and clutching his hand and wrist as he alighted his car.
Arrow McLaren confirmed in a statement that, although he was seen and released by IndyCar’s medical team, he did sustain a broken right thumb and has been withdrawn. He was fifth-fastest in the session.
A statement by the team read: “Following an incident that resulted in contact with the Turn 8 wall during Practice 1 at the Ontario Honda Dealers Grand Prix, Alexander Rossi was seen and released by IndyCar medical. The incident resulted in a broken right thumb. Alexander will be unable to compete this weekend.”
Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
Arrow McLaren will announce the driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet for the rest of the weekend in due course.
Graham Rahal, who ended 14th in the session in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, shared during a post-practice media availability that the particular section of the track that caught Rossi out is trickier as it’s now repaved.
“So, they have new asphalt, which is still bumpy,” said Rahal of Turn 8. “It allows you to brake a lot deeper I feel like or be way more confident.
“So that just means if you miss it, the window is much smaller. As you go to turn into the corner, you come off the new asphalt. It’s kind of like Iowa.
“Iowa, it’s great they repaved the corners, but I wish they would have just done the whole thing or certainly a lot further into the straightaway so that initial phase of the corner was not on a transition like it was, which caught (Marcus) Ericsson out and some other guys.
“It’s similar here. You come off of the new pavement onto the bumpy asphalt and concrete as you get to the apex of (Turn) 8 By the time you’re in there, you’re rolling a lot of speed. It’s a corner that’s always done that, though.
“Even prior, we’d see the most accidents in (Turn) 8 of any corner. It’s just a challenging one.”
Rossi said of the incident: “First of all, I’m very thankful for all the men and women on the IndyCar medical team and for all the great work they do. I do have a broken right thumb. It’s unfortunate because the injury occurred when I almost made it around the corner and I didn’t want to give up on it, so l didn’t quite get my hands off the wheel in time. However, everyone seems optimistic about the kind of injury it is. We’re going to take the next steps here and get ready for Gateway.”
Added Team Principal Gavin Ward: “We are just gutted for Alex and the entire 7 crew. We’ll do everything we can to support him, and that is really what matters today. We had an issue on Pato’s car that was related to the hybrid coolant pump. We don’t know the exact details yet, but we’re looking into it. We will focus on getting the most that we can out of the weekend. We continue to race for Bob, and we will do what we do and carry on.”