Sebastien Bourdais faces a race against time to make the start of his first race back in the IndyCar Series after crashing heavily in the morning warm-up in St. Petersburg.
Although the Frenchman was unhurt, his Dale Coyne Racing Dallara-Honda sustained heavy damage in the accident at the track's fast chicane, which ended with the car on fire.
"I just nipped the wall on the inside of the fast chicane's right-hander and it broke the right-front suspension straight away and from there I was just a passenger," Bourdais told the IMS Radio broadcast team. "The thing just slid over the rumble strips and hit the wall pretty hard, because this is a fast area. It's a really big mistake. There's definitely a lot of damage."
Adding to Coyne's problems, Bourdais' teammate James Jakes had a substantial crash elsewhere on the circuit at almost the same time, leaving the team with two cars to rebuild. It has a supply of spare parts but no fully prepared back-up machine.
The race starts at 1 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, Conquest Racing's Sebastian Saavedra looks set to make the race after his massive qualifying crash. The Colombian has taken to the track in the team's spare car.
Penske Racing's Ryan Briscoe was fastest in the warm-up session.