How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

It was clear that manpower couldn’t remove the car from the track; a crane was needed to take the car away.

So after two laps of the virtual safety car, the virtual safety car on the track turned into a safety car.

After this safety car appeared, naturally, some were happy while others were worried.

Of course, the most worried at this time were the three commentators from Five-Star Sports, because Zhou Haoran had just finished speaking two laps ago and then the safety car appeared on the track.

This truly demonstrated what is called the commentator’s curse coming true on the spot.

After the safety car appeared, the happiest, ecstatic even, was naturally the Red Bull team. When Verstappen came out of the pit stop, although he hadn’t lost position, during the virtual safety car, the gap between cars wasn’t compressed, so the time gap between Verstappen and Hamilton was still real.

But after the safety car appeared, the slow cars needed to be unclogged, and the car lineup would be recompressed.

So Verstappen directly picked up a huge advantage, as the safety car erased the 14-second time gap between him and Hamilton.

He and Hamilton, along with Qin Miao, returned to the same starting line.

You can’t even say that deploying the safety car at this time was a problem on the organizers’ side because all of it was according to the race rules.

But despite this, Mercedes team fans still extended a warm and heartfelt greeting to the FIA.

On the track, knowing a real safety car was deployed and Verstappen had already pitted for tires, both Qin Miao and Hamilton wanted to pit for tires as well at the first opportunity.

But as luck would have it, they both just missed the pit lane entrance when the safety car came out.

Indeed, they drove right past the pit lane entrance.

Within half a lap, the car lineup was compressed and the slow cars were being unclogged.

By then, even if the safety car had to run a few more laps on the track, Qin Miao and Hamilton couldn’t pit for tires, because by the time they reached the pit lane entrance again, the car lineup had been completely compressed, and pitting for tires then would drop them to the back of the field.

So all they could do at this point was stay on the track.

Looking past Hamilton’s car at Verstappen behind him, Qin Miao felt a sudden pang in his teeth.

Damn it, was the organizers targeting Hamilton and me?

Of all times to deploy a safety car, it had to be after we passed the pit exit.

Isn’t this a bit too coincidental?

Now, the only good news for Qin Miao and Hamilton is that several drivers behind them also missed the optimal time to pit, which means the only driver threatening their positions is Verstappen.

But given the situation, thinking too much can’t change the disadvantageous position Qin Miao and Hamilton find themselves in, so apart from trying to conserve their tires during the safety car period, Qin Miao was also hoping for the safety car to lead a few more laps before the race restart, or for a sudden downpour.

However, except for what seemed like an untimely deployment of the safety car from the perspective of Qin Miao, Mercedes, and their fans, nothing else abnormal happened, with everything proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Finally, on lap 59, the safety car was withdrawn, and the race was about to restart.

Although feeling somewhat annoyed, seeing the red on Verstappen’s car made Qin Miao determined, thinking that a set of soft tires isn’t enough to easily defeat his defensive skills!

Furthermore, he wasn’t fighting alone; he was eager to see if Verstappen could handle his DRS train’s full force.

After the race restart, the top three drivers’ positions didn’t change.

With 12 laps to go, Verstappen, who was once in a hurry, seemed in no rush now.

laps were enough for him to tirelessly exploit the grip of his soft tires without worrying about excessive tire wear.

He could use the tire advantage to close the gap with the car in front before entering the DRS zone and then start dealing with the two Mercedes cars one by one.

At this moment, Verstappen finally experienced Qin Miao’s joy, using pure tire advantage to pressure the faster drivers ahead felt genuinely satisfying!

As the race restarted, Verstappen was relatively restrained in the first lap, although he sporadically probed Hamilton and applied pressure, Hamilton remained composed, ignoring all of Verstappen’s tests and blocking all of his attacks.

But as the race reached lap 60.

Before DRS activation, Verstappen ended his probing of Hamilton and got serious.

Qin Miao was ahead of Hamilton by 0.8 seconds, a gap he maintained intentionally.

The 0.8-second gap with Hamilton effectively prevented him from finding an opportunity to attack Qin Miao while providing a decent slipstream effect for Hamilton.