VIDEO: Felix Rosenqvist, Takuma Sato crash. Lucky escape in IndyCar as Pocono bites back again

IndyCar

VIDEO: Lucky escape in IndyCar as Pocono bites back again

Should the series still race there?

Matthew Scott

Monday 19 August 2019 13:07 Updated: 12:27

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Felix Rosenqvist admitted he was lucky to escape unharmed from a scary crash at the Pocono Raceway on Sunday as Takuma Sato drew the ire of his fellow racers, having been judged to have caused the incident.

IndyCar returned to Pocono 12 months on from the terrifying crash which left Robert Wickens with life-altering injuries, and another big collision played out on the opening lap.

Sato triggered a five-car incident, which saw Rosenqvist flipped onto the barrier, reminiscent of Wickens' incident a year ago, although thankfully without the ferocity that left the Canadian with multiple injuries.

Wickens himself reacted by saying it may be time for a "divorce" between IndyCar and Pocono, while Sato was in the firing line afterwards.

Rossi told NBC: "I can't begin to understand, after last year, how Takuma thinks any kind of driving like that's acceptable, to turn across two cars at that speed in that corner in a 500-mile race is disgraceful and upsetting."

Ryan Hunter-Reay was involved in both the incident with Wickens, and the crash this time around, and was similarly scathing of the Japanese driver.

He said: "This is ridiculous. Thank God everybody's all right, you know.

"I thought we learned our lesson here, lap one of a 500-mile race.

"I saw myself hit the inside wall and saw myself coming back into traffic. I could see the field coming as I'm backing into it and I thought, man this could be really bad. Then I saw Felix go up into the fence and we have fence repairs again."

Sato was apologetic after the race, but insisted he had not caused the incident, taking to Twitter to defend himself amid further criticism from Rossi.

I didn’t mean I was blaming Alex at all. I just said the facts and I apologized for the situation on my previous tweet. Now I show you this as well that I just drove straight. pic.twitter.com/Md0U71S8y1
— Takuma Sato (@TakumaSatoRacer) August 19, 2019