Perez cracks hilarious joke after bird incident in Sprint Qualifying

Red Bull's Sergio Perez suffered an unfortunate incident during practice at the Chinese Grand Prix, resulting in the driver needing to pit.

The Mexican, who has come under pressure for his seat with the world champions due to his contract expiring at the end of 2024, was involved in yet another moment of drama during a chaotic Friday at the Shanghai International Circuit.

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Formula 1 has headed to China for the first time since 2019 this weekend, causing varying degrees of uncertainty among the teams.

A disrupted Friday practice due to a fire breaking out on the side of the track was the last thing that was needed, particularly with the sprint weekend format meaning that it was the one and only practice session of the weekend.

During that same session, Perez was involved in an unusual altercation, hampering his progress throughout a lap.

Perez involved in bizarre incident

The six-time Grand Prix winner accidentally hit a bird on the track while heading down the very long back straight.

Despite the sad circumstances that will have caused serious harm to the bird, Perez managed to lighten the mood with the joke about his engineer - Hugh Bird.

In a hilarious video circulating on social media, it appears that Perez jokingly claimed over the radio that the bird he had hit was his engineer's brother, presumably because of his surname.

The Mexican then headed into the pits to gratefully find out that there was no lasting damage to his RB20.

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