If nothing else, Sebastian Vettel came away from Montreal proving he was an animal lover.

Whilst race drivers have taken the lives of a number of animals over the years, not so Sebastian Vettel. Dogs, groundhogs, beavers, squirrels and just about all other god's creatures that live on race tracks can carry, safe in the knowledge that in the four-time world champion they have a friend.

At the post race press conference yesterday, having explained his lightning start, the German revealed an incident that took place a couple of laps later.

"I had a big lead in the first lap which, nearly all of it I gave away in the last corner," he said, "and then it was obviously a bit more tricky to keep Lewis out of the DRS until a couple of laps in - until just before the Virtual Safety Car actually.

"I was a bit distracted,” he continued, "we chatted about it, I have to mention it, I don't know why but I have to... there were two seagulls. I think it was a couple that wanted to commit suicide. They were at the apex of Turn One. Lewis obviously didn't care, so he made up quite a bit of time, about half a second, but I didn't do that couple that favour to say goodbye for good, so by the time Lewis came around they just flew off.

"It wasn't fair! I brake for animals, Lewis doesn't but... yeah. Then the Virtual Safety Car came and freezes the gap at that point."

Later, as race winner Hamilton was being interviewed by Sky Sports F1, the German butted in to tell his tale in what has to be a moment of TV sporting gold.

"The lap before the Virtual Safety Car I arrived in Turn 1 and I see this stupid couple of seagulls," explained the German. "Just sitting there, all relaxed.

"I'm coming along at speed and my car is like red, it's easy to see, it doesn't blend in like yours," he continued pointing at Hamilton.

"It wasn't a pigeon, it was a seagull, I could see the beak. I didn't know their names, but they were there. It was the worst moment of my race."

Whilst all around him looked bewildered, nobody else having seen the errant gulls, Vettel demanded they search the video. Various bits of the opening laps were shown, including the German's mistake at the end of lap one, and gradually people thought he'd imagined it.

As the video search continued, Vettel took the opportunity to ask Hamilton about his strategy.

"We were going to do a two-stop," said Hamilton. "That was Plan A."

"Yeah, in his shoes, you do the opposite," smiled Vettel.

"He said 'Plan B' and I was like 'What the hell is Plan B? I don't remember what it is!'" admitted the Briton.

At this point Sky found the elusive footage of the equally elusive birds and sure enough as Vettel rounds Turn 1 two gulls are sitting in the middle of the corner seemingly oblivious of what’s heading their way... you can almost hear the cries of: "Mine, mine, mine!"

"Two seagulls... you see!" exclaimed the Ferrari driver. "I had my eyes so deep into the apex, I locked up. Mind the animals!

“Play that again,” he demanded. "Can you see they stayed there? That's what really annoyed me. I was doing a hundred and something, and they stay there! If you caught those two seagulls you might prove the opposite whatever you ever found out in history about seagulls."

In response, Hamilton told the German that he is like Dr Dolittle and had told the birds to stand there.

One almost believed him.

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