Minardi mechanic injured.

Both Minardi drivers had difficulty finding their pit markers at Indianapolis but, for Gaston Mazzacane, the problem could have potentially lethal consequences after his car hit one of his mechanics.

Marc Gene had missed his marker two laps earlier but, when Mazzacane arrived with his wheels locked up, the Argentine struck his right front-wheel man, Riccardo Pozzati. Although Pozzati soon recovered, refueller Sandro Parrini, was also run over in the unfolding incident, later collapsed in pain with a broken bone in his foot. It seems that a manhole cover on the approach to the Minardi pit might have been to blame for the incidents.

Mazzacane's race came to an ignominious end when he stopped with mechanical failure on lap 59. As he emerged from his car a fan threw a can of beer which exploded in foam on the nose of his Minardi M02.

In a separate pit-lane incident, Johnny Herbert's slick-shod Jaguar skidded on the still damp surface as he braked for his one tyre stop, collecting a mechanic with a glancing blow as it came to a halt. Although the crewman was uninjured, he dropped the airgun he had been holding onto the front win of Herbert's car, necessitating a time-consuming replacement for the perennially unlucky Briton.