Flares, music and pigeons were just some of the themes of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend as Max Verstappen took his 10th win of the season in Zandvoort.
The grey-feathered birds turned up in their numbers to watch Formulae 1, 2 and 3, as well as the Porsche Supercup, so they had a lot of action to enjoy over the course of the three days.
George Russell picked up on the enormous bird presence on the inside of Turn 7 during practice, and a marshal was ushering them away from the racetrack during a red flag period in qualifying, which was caused by a fan throwing a flare onto the asphalt.
It seems that not all of them survived the event though, with Clement Novalak saying after the Formula 2 sprint race on Saturday that race winner Marcus Armstrong had “murdered a bird.”
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In the feature race, pigeons could be seen playing with fire as they ran and flew around extremely close to the cars, just about avoiding any nasty collisions.
It appears that not everyone had headed Jenson Button’s warning on Sunday morning.
“Don’t forget guys, if you’re coming to the track today, leave your pigeons at home,” tweeted the 2009 world champion.
The different type of wings seen last weekend was not the first time this year that a bird has been hit by a race car, after Red Bull’s Sergio Perez minced one out of Casino Square in Monaco during practice.
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The Mexican then had to lock up while leading the race in order to avoid a bird that swooped across the track in the same section.
Verstappen won the Dutch Grand Prix ahead of George Russell and Charles Leclerc, with Sir Lewis Hamilton coming home fourth after an unfortunate late Safety Car ultimately cost him.
Sergio Perez ended the day in fifth, with Carlos Sainz down in eighth after taking a penalty for an unsafe release by his Ferrari team.