Ojeda reveals cause of heavy crash, ruled out of Thursday qualifying

After a promising start, Jayden Ojeda's Thursday has taken a sour turn at the Melbourne SuperSprint after being caught out by dirty track conditions.

Ojeda topped the opening practice session of the weekend, making the most of his extra set of tyres he receives as a rookie. However, Practice 2 would not run as smoothly.

In a session dominated by Ford, Ojeda was running 14th when he lost the rear of his #31 PremiAir Camaro, and slapped the outside wall at the high-speed Turn 5.

Ojeda was unharmed, but his Chevrolet took severe hits to both the front and rear of the left side of the car, with the front left corner being dragged into exposed concrete.

The 26-year-old is set to miss this afternoon's back-to-back Boost Mobile Qualifying sessions, and will start from the rear of the grid for the first two races of the weekend.

Track conditions have been a big talking point on Thursday in Melbourne, given that the opening Porsche Carrera Cup Australia session of the weekend was effectively a non-event due to an accident.

As such, the track has been considerably dirtier than in recent years of running, with Ojeda revealing it led to his accident.

"I just caught some dirt into Turn 5," Ojeda told Supercars.com after returning to the paddock.

The #31 Chevrolet has been heavily stripped as the crew work towards getting the #31 Chevrolet turned around for the opening 19-lap race of the season at 5:00pm local time.

It marks the second time in as many years that someone has missed Thursday qualifying following a Turn 5 practice crash, with James Courtney forced to sit out following a similar accident.

Ojeda's crash has left a murky form guide due to the limited running and track conditions, with the qualifying simulations being cut off by the abbreviated session.