How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Despite suddenly having a longer distance to chase, which felt somewhat unpleasant, Qin Miao steadied his mind and began his pursuit while protecting the tires.

On lap 6, Qin Miao caught up to Alonso and took advantage of the DRS to overtake Alonso.

Brother Tou didn’t even intend to defend against Qin Miao, letting him pass right before the braking point at turn 17.

Qin Miao moved into second.

At the same time, Hamilton overtook Sainz, reaching fourth, and Verstappen also surpassed Magelsen, moving to sixth.

The three drivers were fiercely chasing each other.

However, according to the data provided by the FIA, Verstappen’s average lap time is about 0.2 seconds faster than the two Mercedes drivers.

This is even when Verstappen hasn’t had the opportunity to set a normal lap without any obstacles.

On lap 13, Qin Miao finally entered the DRS zone behind Perez.

The Red Bull has been upgraded for today’s race, but before the race started, no one knew how much this upgrade would enhance the car’s performance.

However, seeing Perez’s performance today, Red Bull’s upgrade has been extremely significant.

Because in the first four races, Perez’s speed not only couldn’t match his teammate’s but couldn’t match Qin Miao and Hamilton’s either, and from today’s race state, Perez at least has the power to battle Qin Miao on the track.

In the same lap, Hamilton also overtook Alonso.

Compared to his straightforward allowance for Qin Miao, Alonso this old guy was clearly more interested in the other old guy.

Alonso focused all his attention and energy on defending against Hamilton, like returning to that year at Hengelo.

Actually, with the Mercedes car’s performance, overtaking Alonso on the track should not be too difficult for Hamilton.

But, alas, Alonso was exceptionally serious about defending Hamilton in today’s race, blocking many good overtaking opportunities for Hamilton.

Additionally, with intentional brake testing and rhythm changes before the straights, he frustrated Hamilton greatly while also limiting the W14’s performance on the straights.

Every time before entering the straight, Alonso deliberately increased the time gap from the original 0.3 seconds between him and Hamilton to 0.5 or 0.6 seconds.

Such a large time gap means that no matter how strong the Mercedes car’s performance is, it cannot catch up to Alonso’s car and overtake it simultaneously.

Also, because Alonso and Hamilton were embroiled in a battle on the track, Verstappen, starting from ninth, finally overtook Sainz, moving behind Hamilton.

This process took only 13 laps.

Verstappen looked at the front two drivers fighting fiercely, feeling somewhat delighted; at least Alonso helped delay Hamilton for quite a long time. But when Verstappen saw the time gap between Qin Miao and Alonso, he was not so pleased.

Although Qin Miao caught up to Perez, he couldn’t find a good solution to overtake Perez for a while. Observing Qin Miao’s lap speed and the time gap with Perez, Verstappen judged that Qin Miao was currently charging his car, waiting for the perfect opportunity for a decisive move.

That might be so, but how did Qin Miao manage to create a 5-second time gap compared to Alonso?

After his surprise, it was Qin Miao’s turn to be shocked.

Because as the race reached lap 18, nearing the pit stop window, Qin Miao still hadn’t overtaken Perez.

It’s not that Qin Miao didn’t want to, nor that he had any defensive strategies.

Qin Miao simply couldn’t find a way to overtake Perez at the moment.

During this process, Qin Miao fully charged his car twice, thinking many times to make a decisive move, yet none were successful.

Perez’s Red Bull car has impressive tail speed, and it’s unclear where Perez learned to offer fake gaps when defending.

Even Qin Miao himself couldn’t help but be somewhat tempted many times.

But Qin Miao quickly regained his inner calm.

Because Qin Miao knows he’ll eventually overtake Perez; after all, Perez is under a pressure value of [71%].

What he needs to do now is just wait for Perez to make a mistake willingly.

Moreover, the driver behind him is still Alonso.

Although Miami is not a track convenient for defending,

with Hamilton behind having Verstappen, and Hamilton’s car’s tires beginning to show signs of wear, it will become increasingly easy for Alonso to defend against Hamilton.

And Verstappen, because of Alonso’s presence in front of him giving Hamilton DRS, wanting to overtake Hamilton won’t be that easy either.

So overall, the advantage is on Qin Miao’s side.

Now he just needs to run in his familiar rhythm, waiting for Perez to make a mistake.

However, on the track, Qin Miao didn’t wait for Perez to make a voluntary mistake, but instead, the pit window opened.

At the end of lap 18, Sainz was the first to sound the pit signal for the leading group drivers.

The drivers ahead also under Sainz’s pressure all pitted to change tires.

Even Perez in front of Qin Miao chose to pit for a tire change.