Scott McLaughlin crashed his Team Penske car in Sunday afternoon practice and ruined his chance to repeat last year’s Indianapolis 500 pole-winning run.

McLaughlin qualified Saturday inside the top 12 and was eligible to run for the pole later Sunday. But he spun at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and immediately lifted both hands to his helmet as he braced for impact with the Turn 2 wall.

The New Zealanders’ car was destroyed and Team Penske said they’d slot him at 12th and not even attempt a qualifying run Sunday. Penske’s backup speedway car had been earmarked for teammate Josef Newgarden to use in next week’s pit crew competition.

The final qualifying Sunday ended too late for this edition.

McLaughlin, who last year led a Penske sweep of the front row in qualifying, was clearly deflated after he was released from the medical center.

“I’m OK, I’m just really, really, really, really, really sorry for everyone at Team Penske,” McLaughlin said. “I sort of felt it, and I probably should have backed out, but you’re trying to complete a run to see what it feels like and was it worth the risk? Probably wasn’t. I’m incredibly sad.”

He said he felt fortunate the car did not go airborne into the catchfence, but the crash did cause damage to the track surface.

“They can build a new car for me, but I’m just really gutted more than anything,” McLaughlin said. “It’s hard to take, like you wish it was for something, but it was for nothing, right? In practice.”

McLaughlin was also rattled to see his wife crying after his crash out of concern for him.

“They’re nervous about me,” he said. “I wanted to get out of the car straight away just so she knew I was OK.”

Verstappen wins F1 race: Max Verstappen isn’t about to let Oscar Piastri and McLaren walk away with his Formula 1 title.

The four-time defending champion ended Piastri’s three-race win streak and gave his title defense a big boost with victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday in Italy after a daring overtake on Piastri at the start.

Piastri and teammate Lando Norris — whose car has been the one to beat so far this season — had no real answer to the pace of Verstappen’s Red Bull after that.

Verstappen built a commanding lead which was wiped out when the safety car bundled the field back up and injected more drama into the race late on. He still held on to win ahead of Norris, who overtook Piastri for second with five laps remaining.

Verstappen took his second win of the season, the first win since last month’s Japanese Grand Prix, and his fourth in a row at Imola.

Verstappen praised Red Bull’s “fantastic execution all round” as the team marked its 400th F1 race with a win.

“The start itself wasn’t particularly great, but I was still on ... the normal line, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to try and send it round the outside,’ and it worked really well,” Verstappen said of his crucial overtake.

Piastri’s lead over Norris in the standings was cut to 13 points, with Verstappen nine behind Norris.