Chapter 1447 - 545: Toxic Commentary_2
What? The team’s reminders before the race?
If I’ve already won seven world championships and still have to listen to everything the team says, then aren’t those seven world championships won in vain?
As for Qin Miao, who was originally leading at the front, although he felt the Old Man was eager to try against him, at least the Old Man hadn’t recklessly overtaken him.
However, as time went by, Qin Miao felt the Old Man’s attacking moves were becoming increasingly aggressive.
By lap 8, the Old Man relied on a terrifying tail speed to attempt a forced dive into his inner line before the braking point at T1, aiming to push him to the outer line.
But Qin Miao also clearly knows the importance of the braking point’s inner line on a track like Baku for these top drivers.
So, despite the great pressure from the Old Man, Qin Miao did not choose to yield but instead followed Hamilton’s rhythm and changed lanes together toward the inner line.
On the track, one could see the two Mercedes cars heading toward the inner line simultaneously.
Qin Miao and Hamilton even got close to the T1 inner line’s barrier.
Qin Miao managed to force Hamilton back to the outer line by relying on the barrier.
Hamilton’s attack was somewhat overly aggressive, so both Qin Miao’s and Hamilton’s speeds were affected in this race.
Verstappen caught up to 0.2 seconds behind Hamilton through T1.
Through T2, the time gap between Verstappen and Hamilton expanded to 0.3 seconds, but in the DRS zone before T3, Verstappen began making a move on Hamilton using his DRS.
However, Verstappen’s attack did not succeed.
The Old Man held the inner line, and although Verstappen used the car’s DRS to line up side-by-side with Hamilton before the T3 braking point on the outer line, Verstappen had no advantage when entering the corner.
Hamilton didn’t have to exert much effort to defend against Verstappen, just squeezing slightly outward left Verstappen with no offensive line.
Despite the twists, the positions of the top three drivers did not change during this battle.
And Qin Miao realized that the Old Man likely had some unrealistic ideas about his leading position.
Yet Qin Miao was a bit puzzled; didn’t they just say in the pre-race team meeting not to fight internally?
What is the Old Man implying?
After realizing the Old Man had unrealistic ideas, Qin Miao knew he couldn’t continue running a train-like formation.
If running normally, defending against the Old Man wouldn’t be too difficult, as he could run his pace unabashedly.
But if running a train formation, he couldn’t run too fast because he had to manage the distance to prevent the trailing drivers from crashing his rear while not getting too far ahead.
With Qin Miao’s capability, he could at best maintain his speed on the track while managing the distance between himself and Hamilton as well as between Hamilton and Verstappen behind him, but it was truly impossible to also focus on defending Hamilton.
Given the Old Man’s skill, Qin Miao couldn’t ensure a minor mistake wouldn’t be caught by the rival, potentially costing him his position.
Being overtaken by the Old Man isn’t too concerning; compared to the Old Man, he has a substantial lead on the driver standings. What Qin Miao truly fears is being overtaken by Verstappen.
So, after the Old Man’s attack, Qin Miao began accelerating.
It was after Qin Miao started accelerating around lap 10 that the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton widened to 2.1 seconds.
Completely rid of the threat from Hamilton.
Yet, without the slipstream and DRS boost from Qin Miao, Hamilton, after holding out for two laps against Verstappen’s attack, finally succumbed and was overtaken by Verstappen, dropping to third.
However, after overtaking Hamilton, Verstappen didn’t start closing the gap with Qin Miao.
He was slower than Qin Miao at most speed checkpoints during the fastest timed segment.
The cause was easy to guess: the grip of the medium tires was poor on the Baku track under heavy fuel conditions.
Pan’s tire grip failed.
In fact, it wasn’t just Pan; almost all drivers using medium tires besides Qin Miao were complaining in the team TR that their car’s tires were starting to slide, with the rear grip essentially gone.
So from the sixth lap onwards, drivers began pitting to change tires one after another.
Also on lap 10, Lynk & Co Team’s De Vries brushed the wall at T5, breaking the left front suspension which caused the car to lose grip and crash directly into the barrier.
Race direction displayed the yellow flag.
During the yellow flag period, Verstappen and Hamilton, whose tire grip had failed, chose to simultaneously pit for tire changes on that lap.
Meanwhile, Qin Miao had adequate tire reserves, so he didn’t choose to pit immediately, instead waiting for Hamilton to complete his tire change before doing the same.
Then a dramatic scene unfolded.
Because De Vries’s car’s left front suspension broke down completely, his car lost the ability to steer, and his car nose was directly facing the track’s barrier. At that moment, he couldn’t escape using the car’s power, and meanwhile, there was no Matthew’s entrance at the spot where he stopped.
Thus, he remained stranded on the track, and the race director had no choice but to deploy the safety car.
Because of this safety car deployment,
Hamilton and Verstappen, who just pitted, suffered significant losses, while Qin Miao gained a slight benefit.
Qin Miao’s position didn’t change, but when he arrived at the safety car, the driver behind him had changed from Verstappen to Perez, and the driver behind Perez was Leclerc, then only followed by Verstappen and Hamilton.
Although it appeared that Qin Miao didn’t move up in positions, the loss of the main competitors was an advantage to him.
During this pit stop, Qin Miao also switched his tires to hard compounds.
With the data obtained earlier from the race phase and the data from the sprint race, Perez’s single lap speed and long-distance speed were about 0.3 seconds slower than Qin Miao’s.
Thus, at this point, Qin Miao was clear on what to do for the remainder of the race.
He needed to create as much of a time gap with Perez as possible before Verstappen overtakes the two drivers behind him.
Lap 14, race restart.
Leading the way, Qin Miao faced no possibility of a position slip during the restart.
After a smooth launch,
The subsequent race gradually entered a cruise state with position changes primarily occurring among the middle-tier group of drivers, but the lead positions remained unchanged.
The anticipated scenario in which Leclerc and Perez would soon be overtaken by Verstappen did not materialize for Qin Miao.
Although Verstappen swiftly disposed of Leclerc, he couldn’t catch up with Perez on the track.
Qin Miao, meanwhile, kept setting the fastest lap time of the race time and again.
By the time the race reached lap 35, the driver trailing Qin Miao was still Perez, but the time gap between them had been extended by Qin Miao to 5.3 seconds.
This gap, while not immense, provided Qin Miao with ample tolerance for several minor mistakes and even one major error.
Over at Five-Star Sports, upon noticing this, Bing immediately made a judgment: "Qin Miao’s condition in today’s race is truly superb; with his current pace, as long as no mistakes are made, claiming a Grand Prix victory is practically assured."
Zhou Haoran also said: "Despite Qin Miao’s relatively stable performance today, it’s important not to overlook Zhou Guanyu. Zhou Guanyu’s state today is excellent as well. Right now, he’s positioned right behind Norris in 11th, and if he maintains his position today without making mistakes—just like in the previous race—and continues to pressure the drivers ahead, he might very well score points again."
It’s not just the commentators at Five-Star Sports; most domestic racing fans share this sentiment.
To Chinese fans, seeing the country’s two drivers on the track this season is a thriving and flourishing sight.
Then three laps later, on lap 38, Zhou Guanyu encountered mechanical failure on the track, and the car drove straight back to the pits to retire.
Just moments ago, the commentators were praising Zhou Guanyu: ...