There were some unexpected visitors at the first free practice session before the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Singapore on Friday.
Lizards (!) flooded the Marina Bay street circuit, which somewhat disrupted this first session.
Several pilots noticed their presence and laughed at this unusual situation on the radio.
“Maybe Godzilla had a baby,” joked championship leader Max Verstappen’s race engineer as he reported the presence of another lizard. The Red Bull driver was worried by these lizards and didn’t dominate as much as usual, so he had to settle for third place in the first practice session and eighth place in the second practice session.
Lando Norris instead noticed that a dragon was on the trail. One of the Malayan monitor lizards did not survive its trip to the road area.
Seriously: the drivers of the Ferrari team were the fastest. Charles Leclerc set the best lap in 1 minute and 33.350 seconds ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. (1:33.428). For his part, Quebecer Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) took 11th place (1:34.568).
Then, during the second session of the day, the two Ferrari drivers did it again, but this time Sainz Fils (1:32.120) was slightly faster than Leclerc (1:32.138). Stroll set a fast lap of 1:33.390, good for 14th place.
“We didn’t find the rhythm we needed today. “So we have a lot of work to do tonight to understand where we need to improve,” he told the Aston Martin team website. We will adapt right up to the last minute and come into qualifying stronger.”
“I think the new track layout works well and is fun,” said Stroll. I don’t know yet whether it will be conducive to overtaking. There isn’t a big braking zone in the 16th corner, but we’ll see what’s possible on Sunday.
Qualifying takes place on Saturday and the race the next day.