Indianapolis: Dubai-born Ed Jones crashed out a quarter of the way through last weekend’s Indy 500, failing to repeat his third-place finish at the event last season, which had helped him towards winning the Rookie of the Year award for 2017.

At the start of his follow-up season, the 23-year-old English Chip Ganassi driver is now 18th in the driver standings after two top-10 finishes including one podium and three non finishes from six races. Starting from row 10 of 11 in the grid, Jones worked his way into the top 20 before hitting a wall on lap 58.

He was transferred to hospital as a precaution but was later released. “Unfortunately, there were two cars in front of me going two-wide, and the characteristics of the car were understeer — then I got massive oversteer and wasn’t able to catch it,” he said.