Sebastian Vettel at the Singapore Grand Prix: Shocking radio message for Ferrari

In fact, TV footage showed shortly afterwards that a track intruder was strolling calmly along the track, then hopped over a guardrail and disappeared.

However, the whole ‘disappearing’ business didn’t quite go as Yogvitam Pravin Dhokia would have liked – shortly after his idiotic stunt, the Briton was arrested.

In November 2015, Dhokia was sentenced to six weeks in prison and also had to pay a fine of 2,500 Singapore dollars, equivalent to around 1,600 euros at the time.

Dhokia had pleaded guilty to recklessly endangering lives by venturing onto the race track during the Singapore Grand Prix. The time he spent in pre-trial detention was deducted from his sentence, meaning he was back on the streets before the end of the year and able to leave the country.

He had carried out the whole stunt to film videos of the racing cars as they passed by. To do so, he had drunk himself into a state of bravado.

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Singapur: Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

11.10.2026 - 18:00

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) launched an investigation into the organisers of the Singapore Grand Prix. The circuit’s safety protocol was revised for the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix. There were more staff stationed along the track and additional fencing. All in all, it is now made very difficult for a deranged individual to gain access to the track, making such an incident highly unlikely.

Formula 1: Madmen on the track time and again

Unlikely, but not unheard of: looking back, we must count ourselves lucky that such situations haven’t resulted in dozens of deaths!

For years, a track invasion was the perfectly normal finale to every Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Many Tifosi didn’t take the dropping of the chequered flag all that seriously. Such scenes also took place at Hockenheim and Silverstone.

Speaking of Silverstone: unforgettable is the former clergyman Cornelius ‘Neil’ Horan, who ran onto the Silverstone circuit during the 2003 British Grand Prix to draw attention to the words of the Lord. His placard read: ‘Read the Bible. The Bible is always right’.

The only thing that was really close was his own demise: Mark Webber’s Jaguar missed the mad priest by a hair’s breadth.

In his autobiography *Aussie Grit*, Webber wrote: “It was the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen on a racetrack. I couldn’t care less what the bloke was protesting about – he was putting himself, me and others in mortal danger. It made me absolutely furious that he was willing to take that risk.”

But compared to the madness of Mexico in 1970, Singapore or Silverstone were child’s play. 200,000 fans were determined not to miss the action, and when many of them realised they probably wouldn’t be able to get onto the site, they simply trampled down the fences and settled contentedly on the grass at the edge of the circuit.

The race organisers considered calling off the race. But the Mexican organisers feared riots if the crowd were left with nothing to watch. For some, the whole thing had already gone on far too long anyway. So they started throwing bottles and the like onto the track.

Local hero Pedro Rodríguez and world champion Jackie Stewart were sent onto the track to appeal to the fans’ sense of reason. When Stewart and their idol Pedro stood before them, the fans nodded, obediently moved behind the crash barriers, and as soon as the Scot and his Mexican racing colleague were out of sight, they advanced onto the grass again.

After a further delay (due to the shards of glass on the track), the race was given the go-ahead, and the Mexican donkeys didn’t seem to mind at all that cars were whizzing past them at 300.

Stewart then actually ran over a track spectator – a stray dog. “It happened so quickly that there was nothing I could do.”

Meanwhile, the first fans had started to cross the track. They probably thought they’d have a better view from the other side.

When the chequered flag finally fell for Jacky Ickx ahead of Clay Regazzoni, there was no stopping the crowd; the tarmac was completely obscured by the throng of people. Some cars got stuck in the crowd during their cool-down lap and were looted. Anything that wasn’t bolted or nailed down was torn from the racing cars.

As a punishment, the motor racing association removed the race from the calendar; it wasn’t until 1986 that a World Championship round was held in Mexico again.