Chapter 1295 - 487: Not Yielding an Inch
Qin Miao was talking about before this Grand Prix weekend started, when Hamilton and Vettel attended a pre-race interview together, the host asked Hamilton a question.
At that time, the host asked Hamilton about his views on Vettel’s retirement.
After organizing his thoughts, Hamilton didn’t answer the host’s question directly. Instead, he expressed that Vettel would eventually return to the F1 track, as he couldn’t give up his beloved racing.
Just like the other driver Alonso who was interviewed at the time.
Qin Miao simply quoted his teammate Hamilton’s words about Vettel.
Upon hearing Qin Miao’s words, Vettel laughed and said, "It seems if I ever really want to return to the F1 track someday, I should consider the Mercedes team, since only your team’s two drivers firmly believe I will come back."
Qin Miao also made a joke, "Of course, I welcome your arrival, as long as you don’t bump me out of my position."
Since things are still in process, Vettel can’t spend too much time with Qin Miao, but after hearing Qin’s words, he still gave a "You rascal" smile and pointed at Qin.
Soon, the pre-race ceremony was completed, and time reached the final countdown before the 2022 season’s last race, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Qin Miao returned to the team house to rest for a while, then went onto the track.
At this time, the sky in Abu Dhabi hadn’t completely darkened yet. The race procedure for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix usually starts when the sky is about to darken and runs until it’s completely dark, making it one of the more distinctive Grand Prix in the F1 calendar.
Thus, at the time before the race starts, visibility on the track is still quite good.
All team staff, like ants, are busy around their team’s cars.
Qin Miao made his way over to his car, completed all the checks, and began to wait for the race to start.
In this process, Qin Miao saw many drivers engaging in pre-race activities, some playing with a ball with their assistant to train reaction speed, some meditating, but most practicing their reaction skills.
Qin Miao also tried these methods before.
For example, picking up balls and such.
This kind of pre-race attention training does have some effects, but for Qin Miao, the effects of such training aren’t particularly significant.
Qin Miao is only 21 years old this year, right at the age where a person’s reaction speed is at its peak. Thus, such advanced training for Qin is counterproductive, with almost no improvement in reaction speed.
So, Qin Miao didn’t do any preparation during this phase. Instead, he cleared his mind, allowing himself to zone out for a bit, which helped maintain a steady mindset during the race.
Time flew by, and soon Qin Miao’s car was ready.
Under the call of Reyes and his team, Qin Miao got into his car, connected all kinds of equipment, completed tests, and by then, it was about time for the race to start.
"Good hunting!" was the last sentence Reyes said to Qin Miao before the race began.
Soon, the warm-up lap ended, Qin Miao halted at his third starting position, during which he habitually checked for any errors in his car’s settings, confirmed everything was normal, then confidently awaited the start of the race.
...
"Alright, we see all 20 cars ready, the pace car is in position, the rear green flag is waving, the race is about to start!" Bing from Five-Star Sports seemed quite relaxed.
Not just Bing, the other two commentators were also calm.
This season, they had nothing to ask for; Qin Miao had already won his second world championship in his career. Zhou Guanyu’s starting position in today’s race was also quite good, with the possibility of scoring points, and this season for a rookie like Zhou Guanyu was almost perfect.
The three commentators were purely enjoying today’s race.
The only expectation, which couldn’t even be considered a real expectation but rather a hope.
They wanted to see if the Mercedes team could still clinch the team championship despite being twenty points behind.
And on the track, five red lights lit up in succession.
Just like numerous times over the past two years, Qin Miao increased the engine RPM to 7000, finger on the clutch button, waiting for the five red lights to go out.
"The five red lights are out, the race begins!" With Bing’s words, Qin Miao released the clutch button on his steering wheel the moment the five red lights went out.
The car started instantly, pushing the tires’ grip to the limit.
The W13B with distinctive red stitches around the flip-flops shot from the starting position like a silver-black arrow.
Qin Miao’s start was very smooth this time, without any mistakes.
After confirming his start was flawless, Qin Miao had the leisure to observe his teammate and main competitor Verstappen.
To Qin Miao’s surprise, in the final race, due to his more relaxed mindset, Qin Miao felt his start speed and condition might be the best in recent races.