Fittipaldi's bottom pushed into hot rod in ground, swiftish? (9)

I believe the answer is:

ornithoid

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'swiftish?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'fittipaldi's bottom pushed into hot rod in ground' is the wordplay.
'bottom' indicates one should take the final letters.
'pushed into' indicates putting letters inside.
'ground' is an anagram indicator ('grind' the letters into a new form).
The final letter of 'fittipaldi' is 'i'.
'hot'+'rod'+'in'='hotrodin'
'hotrodin' anagrammed gives 'ornithod'.
'i' put inside 'ornithod' is 'ORNITHOID'.

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I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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