Apr.21 (GMM) Nico Rosberg escaped unscathed but the bird was not so lucky, after a 200kph collision in Bahrain during Friday practice.

Bild newspaper reports that the Shanghai winner, and Friday afternoon's fastest in the island Kingdom, came to blows with a wayward feathered-friend as Rosberg's Mercedes circulated the Sakhir circuit.

Video and photo footage depicted the 26-year-old German driver returning to the pits with bloodied feathers stuck in his visor.

"I thought, God, what's that?!" Rosberg told the newspaper.

"It was a violent impact, pushing my head right back. The bird exploded on the helmet, but nothing else happened," he said.

In 1960, British F1 driver Alan Stacey died at Spa-Francorchamps, after a bird smashed through his visor.

Rosberg wears a state-of-the-art EUR 12,000 Schuberth helmet.

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