Tallahassee,FL : Bourdais breaks hip, pelvis in Indy qualifying crash on may, Saturday 20th 2017

IndyCar driver Sebastien Bourdais sustained multiple fractures to his pelvis and a broken right hip in a fiery crash during qualifying on Saturday for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Bourdais was scheduled to undergo surgery on Saturday night at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, IndyCar medical director Dr. Geoffrey Billows said.

"Sebastien is awake and alert," IndyCar spokesman Mike Kitchel said. "He never lost consciousness at any point in time during the accident."

Bourdais, 38, was on the third lap of his qualification run when his car slammed into the wall in turn two and lost control, flipping over as flames shot out from under the chassis. It took the safety crew about 10 minutes to get Bourdais out of his car.

The veteran Dale Coyne Racing driver had completed two laps of his qualifying run with an average speed of 231.534 mph. He had posted the fastest practice laps on Friday for the May 28 race.

"Sebastien is in good hands here at IU Methodist Hospital with the staff and now we just wait for him to recover," Coyne, the team owner, said in a statement

IndyCar officials said additional updates on Bourdais' condition would be released when available.

Bourdais won the season-opening race in the IndyCar series in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Other drivers were concerned about the Frenchman's condition.

"You see big (speed) numbers during the week and people that are fast, the one that obviously stood out for me during the whole week was Bourdais," Scott Dixon said. "Thinking of him, hoping he's OK. It was definitely a big hit."


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Bourdais breaks hip, pelvis in Indy qualifying crash