Max Verstappen thought he struck a bird early in the Canadian Grand Prix. Not just was he remedy, it was wedged in his car for the rest of the race.
The Red Bull driver radioed in early in the race to report that he thought he struck a bird as he was building a lead from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, and upon evaluation after the race, this showed to be real – with one unfortunate Red Bull mechanic required to pull the remains of the regrettable animal from around his front ideal brake duct after the RB19 went back to the garage.
From Verstappen’s viewpoint, the mishap did not trigger excessive damage to his car and he had the ability to take a comfy win in the end, even with the bird lodged in his car for much of the race.
“It was still stuck on my car when I came in, it didn’t look great!” Verstappen informed Sky Sports F1 later on. “I also feel sorry for the mechanic having to remove it.”
The World Championship leader extended his benefit on top to 69 points after his 4th successive win, the 41st of his profession, matching the late, terrific Ayrton Senna in doing so.
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While his margin of success was no place near as big as he has actually ended up being familiar with up until now in 2023, the Red Bull driver’s development appeared reasonably peaceful for much of the race – bird striking aside – as group principal Christian Horner confessed.
“I think the biggest moment he had was hitting that bird, which just did half the race behind the front right brake duct,” he acknowledged.
Given Verstappen’s win came over ‘only’ 9 seconds at the chequered flag, the Dutchman was asked just how much of that can be credited to upgrades from the similarity Aston Martin and Mercedes or an off-day from Red Bull, in spite of making it 8 wins from 8 this season.
And for Verstappen, it was a little both.
“Well, from our side, like I said, I don’t think it was our best day, because of the tyre temps and stuff,” he said.
“So that doesn’t help. But I also know that with their updates, they naturally of course improved. So, for sure, they got closer to us.”
The short article Max Verstappen drives most of Canadian GP victory with dead bird in his car appeared initially on Planetf1.com.
