Singapore GP: Verstappen swerves to avoid crushing lizard
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen had to swerve to avoid a lizard on the track in practice at the Singapore Grand Prix, in a second incident with reptiles on track since 2016.
Ferrari secured the one-two spot in practice with Charles Leclerc’s 1m33.350s that put him less than a tenth clear of teammate Carlos Sainz.
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However the lizard interrupted the days driving as it appeared on track in three separate occasions, causing yellow flags to slow practice.
Max Verstappen memorably had an encounter with a similar reptile in 2016, and fittingly the Dutchman was the first to evade the creature this time around.
The 25-year-old was exiting corner eight in Singapore when he spotted the lizard on the side of the track, causing him to evade it narrowly.
Back in 2016 Verstappen also came across a monitor lizard in FP3 at Singapore, as these creatures are commonly found in the country.
in 2016 Vertsappen exclaimed: ‘There’s a giant lizard on the track,’ and later laughed as he passed Turn Three before announcing: ‘I am not joking.’
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A Red Bull engineer, who watched on as Verstappen was forced to drove around the creature, asked him whether he had come “face to face with Godzilla”.
This year the Red Bull driver remarked: ‘Ah! There’s a lizard again on the track, a smaller one this time.’
With Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase joking: ‘understood, maybe Godzilla had a kid.’
Verstappen finished the session in third, with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking up the fourth spot and Lewis Hamilton in fifth.