Sebastien Bourdais saw his Thursday practice session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway cut short after the Frenchman suffered more engine issues on his #18 Dale Coyne Racing machine.
Bourdais retired from the recent Grand Prix of Indianapolis after just three laps thanks to a Honda engine failure, and with a relatively new engine on his car for practice around the 2.5-mile oval, he ground to a halt with smoke exiting the back of his Dallara.
The Frenchman says the loss of track time will hurt more if the forecasted rain falls on Fast Friday, but he feels they have a good package for race day, and knows it is possible to win from the back at Indianapolis.
“We had another engine issue, not quite sure what happened exactly, our engine was almost new,” said Bourdais. “We have a powerful and competitive package, but you have to see the chequered flag.
“It’s unfortunate to miss out on valuable practice time because that’s when you start doing the trims and everything. We were still doing some race set-up stuff and we were going to come back soon to the garage and trim out the car to see what it felt like.
“Obviously, that’s not going to happen, so if weather tomorrow is not very pleasant then it’s going to set us back.
“However, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if we don’t qualify very well, as long as the race car is competitive that’s all that matters. You can win from the back here.”