Bourdais back behind wheel of an IndyCar

Sebastien Bourdais has driven an IndyCar for the first time since suffering a broken pelvis and hip in an Indianapolis 500 qualifying crash.

Bourdais’s Dale Coyne Racing Honda stepped out at Turn 2 during the third lap of his qualifying run, with the Frenchman making heavy contact with the wall.

The impact was recorded at 118g.

Bourdais underwent surgery for fractures to his pelvis and a broken hip and was discharged from hospital five days after the accident.

Now, just over 10 weeks later, Bourdais has driven one of DCR’s cars during testing at Mid-Ohio the day after the latest race of the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Team boss Dale Coyne had originally ruled the Frenchman out for the season, but Bourdais says that he was treating the test as an “evaluation day” and insisted there was no date set for his return to racing.

“I wouldn’t be here and getting back in a car if I wasn’t ready, but for now, it’s just testing,” Bourdais said ahead of the test.

“We’ll see how it goes, it’s kind of an evaluation day.

“I know that after this, the cars get transferred to ovals (spec) and everything.

“The doctors were okay with me getting back in the car on the 15th (of August), and they said that two weeks were not going to make a big difference.

“Physically, I’m feeling good, so we’ll give it a shot because after that we get to two ovals, timing gets a bit crazy, and I’m probably not going to get an opportunity to test.”

Bourdais said he had made better progress than expected in returning to fitness.

“I’m feeling really good, rehab turned into workouts pretty quick, and we’re definitely seeing a lot of progress,” he added.

“It’s not linear, the guys in St Pete taking care of me have done a really good job, we have kind of been pushing each other within limits, it was definitely good to just get on the bike and do everything more normal.

“We had worked on trying to reduce the muscle loss and all that, and it worked.

“From there, the time to get back to 100 percent diminished rapidly.

“That was the big thing for me, once I got to the point of being able to walk, get some feel again, build some muscles, get my butt cheeks back and stabilising the hip, it was all good.”

IndyCar continues with the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway on August 19-20.