Indy 500 star Alexander Rossi was forced to make a quick escape from his car on Sunday after the vehicle caught fire. The incident occurred when the star was making a pit stop just before the halfway point of the race.

Rossi began the day as an outsider to win the event, despite the fact he claimed victory in 2016. But his afternoon came to an end prematurely as his vehicle went up in flames while his mechanics were working on it. The American had to be helped out of the vehicle as flames spread underneath his seat. And he displayed his anger seconds later as he removed his gloves and threw them to the ground.

A FOX Sports commentator suggested there had been a fuel leak and told viewers one of the mechanics was “on fire himself” as he attempted to put out the flames.

He then explained that the fuel probe on the other side of the pit wall was “still burning from the residual fuel” as Rossi made his way out of the car.

The scary incident came after Scott Dixon's car had caught fire on a pace lap before the race had even begun.

“It’s always a terrible situation,” Rossi said as he spoke about the fire. “And it’s so disappointing. It was such a phenomenal race car. The team made a great decision to stay out when that first split happened with the strategy. Everything that we were doing on the (No.) 20 Java House stand was awesome.

“That’s what’s so painful about this place. You have to have so many things go right. It’s just disappointing because it’s another opportunity gone.”

He added: “I don’t know the full details, all I know is the gearbox was starting to go in temp a lot. I don’t know if oil was starting to come out or what, but it was a gearbox issue.”

A host of other drivers were forced out of the Indy 500, with Robert Shwartzman seeing his race come to an end after crashing into some of his mechanics during a pit stop.

“When it was yellow I came in and honestly it felt really strange, my brakes,” Shwartzman explained after the incident.

“Already when I was going slow coming in the pit lane, I locked both front tyres which usually is not the case. I wasn’t sure if it was the brakes or because the tyres were cold. As soon as I touched my brakes, the front locked and I just went straight into the guys. Luckily nobody got really hardly injured. I think there is only one guy that had a bit of an injury. I’m happy that everybody is fine.”