An unlucky bird went from sky to circuit and into the right front suspension of Max Verstappen's RB19 during Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, leaving one Red Bull mechanic with a grisly post-race clean-up task.
During the early stages of the race, Verstappen had radioed in to signal to his crews that he had hit a bird, fortunately with no effect on the performance of his car.
After the race, the local wildlife's remains were found near the right front brake duct of the RB19.
"It was still stuck on my car when I came in, it didn't look great!" Verstappen told Sky. "I also feel sorry for the mechanic having to remove it."
©RedBull
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the unfortunate on-track encounter was the only incident to report after an otherwise dominant display by the championship leader.
"I think the biggest moment he had was hitting that bird, which just did half the race behind the front right brake duct," commented Horner.
However, managing tyre temperatures in Sunday's cool conditions required some vigilance on Verstappen's part.
"They just struggled to get temperature into the car, and it is hard generating the energy when there's only sort of six corners here and long straights," added Horner.
"You could see that the lap times were quite variable for all the drivers at certain points in time
"But Max was able to break the DRS and then pull out a healthy gap before the safety car. Then, after the safety car, he got 10 seconds as well.
"This type of circuit is quite unique, so to have come through this challenge as well is really encouraging."
Another subdued weekend for Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez widened the gap between the two bulls in the Drivers' standings, with the Dutchman increasing his advantage to 69 points.
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