Chapter 1269 - 477: Equally Mediocre
On the track, after completing the checks, the warm-up lap began.
After completing a lap, Qin Miao returned to his pole position, waiting for the race to start.
In today’s race, Qin Miao is using a standard pit stop strategy, red-yellow with one stop...
At least for Qin Miao, it’s a standard and familiar pit stop strategy.
Qin Miao’s teammate, Hamilton, is also starting on soft tires.
However, Hamilton’s tire-saving ability isn’t as extraordinary as Qin Miao’s, so starting on soft tires means Hamilton might need a second stop later in the race, or switch to hard tires to finish.
This also changes according to the situation on the track.
After all, the F1 track is full of unexpected turns, and no one knows what surprises might occur during the race, so besides the normal pit stop strategy, the team will definitely prepare several backup plans.
Basically covering any time an unexpected event might occur throughout the race.
But even so, the unexpected events on the track usually still leave the strategy staff of all teams feeling caught off guard.
On the other side, Qin Miao’s main rival Red Bull’s two drivers are also starting on soft tires today.
Their intentions are obvious.
Very quickly, Albon, who was last, parked his car in his starting position, and the race was about to begin.
Actually, Yuki Tsunoda of Toro Rosso should have started last, but because Tsunoda changed the front wing and rear wing today, he was directly penalized by the FIA to start from the pit lane.
So today, only 19 F1 cars are on the starting grid at the start of the race.
"Okay, we see the green flag waving at the back, the safety car is also in place, the five red lights are coming on one by one..."
"The red lights go out, and the race begins!"
Qin Miao immediately released the clutch button of the car, and the car started steadily as usual, powerful traction transmitted instantly through the engine to the tires, and the friction between the tires and the track propelled the car to accelerate forward.
After all, Qin Miao is young, and he’s never slacked off in training his reaction speed (referring to video gaming here), so Qin Miao’s start is as steady as ever.
But Qin Miao’s reaction is merely fast; during the main race, Qin Miao’s main rival Verstappen seemed to have awakened some incredible attribute or ability after being pushed to the cliff by Qin Miao.
Verstappen’s starting speed was unusually fast, quickly closing the gap between himself and Qin Miao.
Before the T1 braking point, Verstappen was already side by side with Hamilton, apparently ready to attack from behind Qin Miao.
Qin Miao was also preparing to shift to the inside line to defend against Verstappen behind him.
But unexpectedly for both Qin Miao and Verstappen, Hamilton, who was starting second and on the inside, casually shifted to the outside line, blocking Verstappen’s attempt to move inside.
Verstappen, who was ready to dart inside Qin Miao, suddenly felt a sense of frustration like swallowing a dead fly with Hamilton’s block.
But to avoid collision with Hamilton’s car, Verstappen didn’t dare force a squeeze between Qin Miao and Hamilton, and since Qin Miao kept maintaining his position on the outside line, it wasn’t really possible for Verstappen to overtake Qin Miao from the outside.
So Verstappen’s incredibly excellent start was directly obstructed by the two Mercedes drivers.
Verstappen was feeling unspeakably frustrated at this point.
"Damn, what a jinx!"
After lightly easing off the throttle to avoid colliding with Qin Miao, Qin Miao reached the T1 braking point.
With no need to slow down, and without interference from cars behind, Qin Miao’s corner entry was smooth, taking the optimal entry line.
So Qin Miao passed through this stage at the start.
Known in the paddock as a defense master, Qin Miao immediately recognized Hamilton’s effortlessly skilled defense.
Honestly, Qin Miao felt that Old Man is definitely a top-notch second driver.
With such awareness and defensive skills, this guy is on par with me!
But despite Hamilton winning 7 world championships, unless Hamilton ages and can’t race anymore but still wants to stay on track, only then might Hamilton fully support someone else.
Regarding what Hamilton has done for Qin Miao this season...
It’s entirely because the team forced Hamilton; if the W13 developed at the start of the season suited Hamilton’s driving style, it wouldn’t have made Hamilton feel uncomfortable almost the entire season, only getting better after car improvements by the season’s end.
But if, indeed, the W13 met Hamilton’s liking from the start, the track would have presented a different picture, possibly all three drivers fighting for the driver’s championship by season end like last year.
Who can really say what might have happened?
Because while Hamilton was defending Verstappen for Qin Miao, he didn’t really disrupt his race pace, so although Hamilton was half a car length behind Verstappen at the T1 braking point, with late braking Hamilton came back alongside Verstappen.
And coming into T2, Qin Miao reciprocated the favor.
Qin Miao slightly "errored" at T2, cutting a bit less curb, resulting in taking about 0.2 seconds longer to straighten the car compared to normal conditions.