Red Bull reveal Verstappen ROADKILL during Canadian Grand Prix

A picture has emerged online which appears to show the bird that Max Verstappen drove into during the Canadian Grand Prix, an incident that threatened to derail the Dutchman's chances of victory.

Verstappen won his sixth race of the championship in Montreal this weekend as he led from the front and never looked back.

The Red Bull driver has been dominant in the RB19 and although there has been talk of teams slowly closing the gap to Verstappen, the two-time world champion is still in a class of his own.

READ MORE: Perez SLAMS 'POOR' Red Bull over lack of pace despite Verstappen victory

It therefore seems that it will take some kind of divine intervention to prevent the 25-year-old from winning – and that eventuality nearly happened in Canada.

*WARNING: This article contains graphic content you may find uncomfortable*

On lap 11, Verstappen took to his team radio to report that he had hit a bird. Speaking after the race, the Dutchman then revealed that it had not been dislodged for the remaining 59 laps.

"It was still stuck on my car when I came in, it didn't look great!" he told Sky Sports F1. "I also feel sorry for the mechanic having to remove it."

And that engineer did eventually manage to remove the bird from the RB19, after a rather grim picture emerged on social media of the poor animal.

Red Bull gives you.. ehh 😬 pic.twitter.com/0FMDhkHi6t

— Charrel Jalving  (@Charreljalving) June 19, 2023

Such is the Red Bull man's dominance, team principal Christian Horner admitted that the moment of impact was the only real danger that Verstappen had to deal with on his way to victory.

He said: "The biggest moment he had was hitting a bird that did half the race behind the front right brake duct."

Verstappen now finds himself sitting top of the driver standings on 195 points, 69 clear of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in second.

READ MORE: Verstappen MISSES Canadian GP Grand Slam as Alonso beats Hamilton for second

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