Chapter 1228 - 463: Heaven-Defying Braking
Naturally, Sainz was unwilling to just give up his pole position, so after being overtaken by Verstappen at T1, he prepared to switch lines to see if he could reclaim his position.
Qin Miao also had a good start, but it wasn’t decisive in terms of speed.
Though Sainz’s start wasn’t as good as Verstappen’s, the acceleration capability of that damn Ferrari engine in the mid-to-late segments was incredible.
Even if Qin Miao’s reaction time at the start was faster than Sainz’s, he couldn’t catch up to Sainz during acceleration in the later stages.
Meanwhile, on Qin Miao’s inside line, Hamilton’s start wasn’t worse than Qin Miao’s, it was even slightly better, coupled with the advantage in engine durability, so Hamilton was closely tailing Qin Miao on the inside line, creating another dangerously close waltz between the two Mercedes on the track.
Hamilton wanted to push Qin Miao to the outside of the track while Qin Miao aimed to push Hamilton to the inside, trying to secure more space going into the corner.
Neither driver was willing to yield, but they were both somewhat rational, competing fiercely without colliding.
It’s astounding to see the mastery both drivers have over their cars, truly a sight to behold.
However, the advantage for cars on the inside line at T1 of the Austin track was significant, and at that time, Hamilton and Qin Miao were still wheel-to-wheel.
So Qin Miao ultimately couldn’t hold his starting position and dropped to a familiar fourth place behind Leclerc.
Meanwhile, at the front, Sainz also couldn’t keep his pole position.
Not only did he perform poorly in the starting phase, but Verstappen’s inside position off the start and his aggressive driving style made it really uncertain if Sainz could defend his position.
Of course, for both Qin Miao and Sainz, their starting positions in today’s race weren’t particularly advantageous.
Moreover, most of the drivers who lost positions at the start of today’s race were those starting on the outside line.
Thus, both drivers had already anticipated before the race that they might be overtaken by cars on the inside at the start.
Being overtaken didn’t come as much of a surprise.
Meanwhile, Qin Miao knew well that the Austin track was relatively easy for overtaking, with two DRS zones providing ample acceleration and attacking opportunities.
Most importantly, Mercedes had improved their cars this season, with a noticeable increase in DRS efficiency.
In the post-qualifying statistics, although Mercedes’ DRS efficiency was not as good as Red Bull and Williams, it was ranked third among all teams.
It was quite promising on this track.
While the width of the Austin track was broad, because of the characteristics of the track at T1, there were basically no cars still wheel-to-wheel after T1.
At this moment, Qin Miao had little to do but to follow closely behind his teammate Hamilton, waiting for the DRS to open and for any mistakes by Hamilton.
"Qin Miao’s start in today’s race was indeed a bit of a misstep," remarked one of the three commentators from Five-Star Sports, who began their day’s work as the race commenced.
However, there was one less commentator in the studio today, as Fei did not participate in commentating.
Although everyone was a fan of Qin Miao, having been in F1 for so long now, people were used to Qin Miao’s presence, no longer watching his races with a sense of novelty.
Moreover, considering Fei’s age, the US Grand Prix was held at 3 AM domestic time, which was truly too late for him to stay up, so Libao replaced Fei this time.
Fei would watch the race replay upon waking up the next day.
"It’s rare to see Qin Miao lose position at the start," Libao said with a hint of regret after watching the start.
However, the other two commentators were not bothered by this. Although what Libao said was true, this was probably the only race of the season where Qin Miao didn’t gain any places at the start and even lost one.
But in nearly two years on the F1 circuit, Qin Miao had already etched an unremovable impression in the hearts of Chinese fans: Qin Miao could always secure impressive results on track, consistently so.
Qin Miao followed behind his teammate for three laps until the DRS was activated.
But the first to make a move wasn’t Qin Miao; it was his teammate Hamilton in front of him.
Before the DRS was activated, Hamilton was already within Sainz’s DRS zone, clearly putting pressure on Sainz.
And whether it was because Sainz was focused on Hamilton behind him for these three laps or Sainz’s car itself was slow,
By the time the DRS was activated, the gap between Sainz and Verstappen ahead was already widened to 1.5 seconds.
The race had only started three laps, and Verstappen was pulling away at an average of 0.5 seconds per lap.
This Dutchman was fast beyond reason.
By the fifth lap, the gap between Verstappen and Sainz had widened to 3.5 seconds, this time gaining a full second per lap.