A bizarre incident involving Marcus Ericsson and Sebastien Bourdais has marred the opening laps of the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.
After the yellow flag was drawn on the opening lap to retrieve the stricken car of AJ Foyt Enterprises’ Dalton Kellett, the series combatants collided during the restart on Lap 4.
Coming to the green flag, Ericsson slammed into the back of Bourdais and launched up into the air.
Despite dropping down to the ground hard, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver was able to continue on as did the wounded AJ Foyt Enterprises entry.
The pair slowly made their way back to the pit lane carrying front and rear wing damage respectively.
Shortly thereafter, the second full-course caution was thrown.
Ericsson reported that Bourdais slowed down as the field was coming to the green, which the Frenchman vehemently disagreed with.
“I mean, I won’t even go there because I don’t want to be a douche, but if that’s his answer then he needs to fricken get a real good hard look at it,” Bourdais said.
“There was a massive acceleration, everybody trying to back up, I don’t know why.
“It seems like we always have that massive acceleration leading to starts and restarts, which obviously if you just get your eyes off or you’re not focused or something you can get caught out real easy, and that’s exactly what happened again.
“Everybody was trying to catch up, catch up, catch up, we caught the tail of the pack and then all of a sudden it goes like first/second gear speed and Marcus just flew right over our car. I stopped because the cars were stopped in front of me.”
Ericsson was able to return to the race with a new front wing while Bourdais suffered too much damage to continue.
Colton Herta led Andretti Autosport team-mate Alexander Rossi at the time of the Safety Car intervention.
Marcus Ericsson gets airborne!
Ericsson gets into the back of Bourdais, and the caution later comes out. TV: NBCSN
Stream: https://t.co/T78I3Vpd2f pic.twitter.com/24jLNEwUfo
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) August 8, 2021
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