F1 red flagged after GIANT LIZARD enters race track before evading stewards as drivers forced to swerve to miss ‘dragon’

FORMULA ONE was hit by chaos ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix as a giant LIZARD forced a red flag.

Animals are a common hazard around some F1 tracks, with foxes, groundhogs and one famous incident in 2016 being dubbed “Godzilla”.

Today seemed to see the sequel to the latter, as a huge monitor lizard was seen invading the race track during Free Practice 3 on Saturday morning.

Nicknamed “Lionel”, the lizard was taking in the sights as it went for a stroll on the active race track just moments after the session began.

Its presence forced Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso to give it a wide berth as he put in some practice laps around the street circuit – which has the most corners of any F1 track.

Meanwhile, Mercedes driver George Russell said the lizard “looked like a dragon” on the team radio.

The lizard strutting its stuff caught a smile from Williams driver Alex Albon, who was seen in the paddock as he waited for the hazard to clear.

Once the session was neutralised with a red flag, track stewards tried to catch Lionel to allow the session to get back underway.

However, as a steward clad in a bright orange safety vest approached, Lionel then bolted off down the track.

This caused an impromptu sprint race between Lionel and the steward.

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Sky Sports commentator David Croft was left stunned by the lizard’s pace, remarking: “I’ll tell you what, it’s got a purposeful stroll but when it wants to get a shift on, look at that.

“Look at the pace of that. It’s a drag race!”

And after a delay of around 11 minutes, the green flag was waved to finally allow the session to get back on track.

Fans rushed to social media to share their thoughts on the gate-crashing lizard.

One said: “Give him a paddock pass so he doesn’t have to trespass.”

A second said: “Alex stole the spotlight from the Godzilla.”

A third said: “Marshals trying to match speed with lizard.”

Another said: “GUYS THERES A MONITOR LIZARD AGAIN.”

A fifth added: “Why is it running like that… screaming cute fr.”

A sixth said: “This was too funny,” while another said: “It’s faster than Red Bull.”

Alonso might have been getting a sense of deja vu after he was also at the centre of a lizard storm in Singapore last year.

However, while this year ended with the lizard being captured and safely removed, last year Alonso unfortunately left fans distraught after accidentally running over a lizard.

Max Verstappen only narrowly avoided hitting a groundhog at this year’s Canadian Grand Prix, with groundhogs a common invader of the track.

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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk