Power fastest, Wilson hospitalised after Indy 500 Monday Practice

Will Power has posted the fastest time in Practice 8 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway while Stefan Wilson has been hospitalised following the first major incident during for this year’s 33-car Indy 500 field.

The Australian Team Penske driver ended Practice 8 with a 229.222mph lap and time of 39.2633s.

In qualifying Power landed a 232.635mph four-lap average and with a 38.6922 on the first of those four laps to qualify 12th for this year’s Indy 500, ahead of Penske team-mates Scott McLaughlin (14th) and Josef Newgarden (17th).

Practice 8 saw slower times as teams worked on race set-ups for the 500-mile event.

“We’ve been having vibration problems,” Power said. “I think we got somewhat on top of that. Ran at the front, ran at the middle, ran at the back, and I think the car’s pretty good. I think we’re in a good spot. We have good horsepower. I think we’re in good shape.”

Power also covered the second-most distance during the two-hour-and ten-minute session, lapping the 2.5-mile oval 88 times, with only Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard ahead of him on 90 laps.

Behind Power, Chip Ganassi Racing – who took pole with Alex Palou on Sunday and topped every session bar one in the lead up to qualifying – filled the next three positions, with Scott Dixon second-fastest (229.184mph), Takuma Sato third (228.382mph) and pole-sitter Palou fourth (227.392mph).

Last year’s Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson (225.688mph) was 13th in the fourth CGR entry, behind McLaughlin (225.787mph).

An incident between Katherine Legge and Stefan Wilson 71 minutes into the session was the first major collision of this year’s running at The Brickyard.

The two cars contacted which saw Wilson’s head nose-first into the Turn 1 barrier, with Legge’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan spinning backwards into the Turn 1 wall before sliding along the track before a secondary impact into the wall at Turn 2.

Legge climbed from the #44 entry unassisted, while Wilson was transferred to the medical centre for further checks before being taken to the nearby IU Health Methodist Hospital.

UPDATE: Wilson ruled out of 2023 Indy 500 with broken vertebrae.