Tony Kanaan took third place in IndyCar’s Baltimore Grand Prix despite a major accident in the morning’s warm-up session.
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The 36-year-old Brazilian suffered a brake failure on his KV Racing Lotus while following Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves into the first corner.
Deciding to clip the back of Castroneves’s car, Kanaan became airborne before making further contact with the outside wall and escape road tyre barriers.
Starting the race in his team-mate’s back-up car from 27th on the grid, Kanaan joined Newman/Haas Racing’s Oriol Servia in pitting off-sequence with the leaders – a move that saw both drivers finish in the top three
“Starting where we did, we just tried to make something happen – we had nothing to lose,” said Kanaan post-race.
“I was helping my guys at the start as they felt really down, they were really scared.
“It was a human mistake and I felt I needed to support them, say ‘forget about it’.
“Tomorrow we will have a chat, but it wasn’t doing us any good to point fingers.”
Speaking of the accident, Kannan said he was fortunate to be able to use Castroneves’s car to wash off speed prior to making contact with the wall.
“I was actually lucky that Helio was there – he saved my life,” said Kanaan.
“I lost my brakes, and I was heading straight to the wall. I’m glad that both of us are OK.”
Castroneves battled to 17th in the race, but said he was relieved that his countryman emerged unscathed from the morning’s crash.
“He hit me from the back and was flying over me, which was really concerning because I saw him going over me and hit the wall in a very awkward position, so I was really concerned,” said Castroneves.
“But when I saw him get out of the car and he was very alert, I was glad he was OK.”
Kanaan and Castroneves will drive in October’s Armor All Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars event with Jason Bargwanna (Jana Living Racing) and Tim Slade (Lucky 7 Racing) respectively.
