Sebastien Bourdais says that he has been given a clean bill of health after a speedy recovery from his huge qualifying crash at May’s Indianapolis 500.
Bourdais lost control at Turn 2 halfway through his four-lap qualifying run, making heavy right-front contact with the wall before his car briefly slid upside-down.
The crash, measured at a force of 118g, caused multiple fractures to his pelvis and a broken right hip and looked set to rule the Frenchman out for the season.
However, Bourdais, who spent five days in hospital as a result of his injuries, drove one of his Dale Coyne Racing team’s IndyCars again in late July’s Mid-Ohio test day.
He has since tweeted, “Some of you might wonder why I was in Indy today… Well, I had the final appointment with Doc and guess what? All clear, let’s go racing!”
While the next IndyCar race is this weekend’s Pocono 500, Bourdais has already ruled himself out of that round and the Gateway 500 on the following weekend due to a shortage of cars at DCR and the tight turnaround.
Bourdais’ Indianapolis 500 car was written off in the incident, his replacement James Davison was involved in a big multi-car prang during the race itself, then both Tristan Vautier and Ed Jones were taken out in the same incident during a chaotic race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Bourdais could be on the grid at Watkins Glen on September 1-3 and again in the final round of the season at Sonoma a fortnight later.