George Russell forced to abandon Singapore GP practice after smashing into barriers and mangling Mercedes

GEORGE RUSSELL sparked chaos in a wild practice day at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Two red flags, a pit lane collision, and a FIRE gave stewards a very busy Friday.

FP1 started with the rear brakes of Alex Albon’s Williams catching fire in the sweltering heat of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Team boss James Vowles later confirmed the brakes had reached temperatures of over 1000 degrees before Albon was forced to retire.

But Mercedes ace Russell then sparked more chaos in FP2 as his car went straight into the barriers at Turn 16.

As he attempted the right-hand err, he lost the rear before the snap correction sent him flying into the wall and prompting the first red flag of the session.

It was an incident labelled "weird" by the Briton over the team radio.

Liam Lawson followed suit not long after as he hit the wall in the runoff of Turn 17.

That saw his front-left go flying down the track and the plank under his car grind along the floor as his Racing Bulls drive skidded to a halt at the pit lane entrance.

And following the restart, Charles Leclerc bizarrely smashed into McLaren's Lando Norris in the pit lane following an unsafe release from the Scuderia mechanics.

Both have been summoned by race stewards over the incident, which is likely to result in some penalty for the Ferrari driver.

A total of 22 minutes of the hour-long session were lost through the various incidents.