A monitor lizard put a momentary stop to proceedings during a practice session at this year’s Formula One (F1) Singapore Grand Prix (GP) — again.
The race finally resumed only after the reptile was chased away by at least two race marshals.
Source: @f1 on Instagram
At 5.50pm on Saturday (21 Sept), the official F1 Facebook account posted that there was a “lizard on track” during the final practice session.
According to the post, engineers were informed of its appearance by Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso, who said it was in the middle of the track.
F1 said it was one of the “weirdest red flags ever”.
The waving of a red flag meant all on-track activities had to be stopped.
In order to restart the session, the lizard had to be removed.
This called for the services of at least two people — the Intervention Marshal, the main chaser, and the Chief Post Marshal, who followed with a plastic bag presumably to put the reptile in.
Source: F1 on Facebook
As they pursued the lizard, it sprinted away rather quickly — fittingly for an event that’s all about speed.
Source: F1 on Facebook
Its antics also amused the watching crowd, which included VCARB driver Daniel Riccardo.
Source: F1 on Facebook
Eventually, though, the track was cleared and the green flag was waved.
The delay took just 11 minutes, reported The Sun.
After the dust settled, McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed pole position in the qualifying session, standing him in good stead for Sunday’s race.
Interestingly, this was the third lizard “track invasion” in Singapore GP history.
The first time was way back in 2016 when driver Max Verstappen came face-to-face with a lizard on the track, describing it as “Godzilla”.
Last year, the yellow flag was raised three times during a practice session due to lizard sightings on the track.
Also read: Monitor Lizard Spotted Crawling On F1 S’pore Track During Practice Session On 15 Sep
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Featured image adapted from @f1 on Instagram and F1 on Facebook.
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