Will Power crashes hard in second IndyCar Markham practice

Andretti Global mechanics scramble to repair the #26 Honda ahead of qualifying on the brand-new street circuit

Will Power became the first driver to crash at the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham, bringing out a red flag late in Saturday’s second practice session.

The Aussie was rolling around the newly-constructed 2.19-mile, 12-turn temporary street circuit when he ended up off-line in Turn 10 and clipped the right side of his #26 Andretti Global Honda into the tire barriers. The incident brought out a red flag with just over seven minutes remaining in the open portion of the practice session before group running.

Power, who ran the fifth-fastest lap during Saturday morning's opening practice, took full responsibility for the mistake, citing poor grip off line in the preceding corner.

"It was actually a soft-feeling crash with a lot of damage, unfortunately," Power said. "My mistake. I kind of went through Turn 9 and got wide. I kept missing the turn-in there and you get all that dust, which probably got dust on the tires, and then I was a bit shallow for Turn 10... I wasn’t even quite going for a lap there, so pretty unfortunate."

The technical Turn 9–10 sequence proved particularly tricky on the green street surface.

"It’s definitely quite technical to line yourself up over that bump to turn into Turn 10," Power said. "I was really strong there in the sectors in the first practice session... But man that sucks when you’re on a new track to lose that time. Although there’s only 12 minutes left, there’s definitely 12 minutes we would like to have and not have to repair a car."

Ron Ruzewski, team principal for Andretti Global and Power's strategist, highlighted the setback of losing track time while expressing confidence in the team's setup.

"You hate to lose track time, especially on a new circuit," Ruzewski said. "Right now all three cars have been decent off the truck, so I think we'll just have to rely on Marcus (Ericsson) and Kyle (Kirkwood) to direct us for the qualifying session. Right now the focus is just getting the car assessed and figuring out what we've got to work with and hopefully we can get back out for qualifying."

Following an immediate inspection, Andretti Global opted against bringing out a backup car. Instead, mechanics began thrashing on repairs to the primary chassis ahead of qualifying set for 6:30pm ET.