Chapter 1233 - 464: Flying High in the Sky
The next phase of the race entered a brief calm period, which lasted until lap 35.
In this lap, Hamilton’s strategy team realized that by staying behind Qin Miao, Hamilton could at most secure a third place in this race.
Although getting on the podium is indeed nice, neither the seven-time champion himself nor Hamilton’s strategy team was satisfied — they wanted a race victory in this event.
Therefore, Hamilton proactively sought change and went for a second pit stop on lap 35 to change tires, putting on a brand new set of medium tires.
After Hamilton pitted, Verstappen guessed Hamilton’s intention; he wanted to undercut both him and Qin Miao.
As for Qin Miao’s specific thoughts at this moment, Verstappen and the Red Bull strategy team didn’t care, but Verstappen certainly wouldn’t sit idly by.
Thus, Verstappen on the track began to accelerate.
Qin Miao also knew he needed two pit stops, and similarly began to speed up to prevent an overtake by his teammate.
Although Qin Miao and Hamilton were teammates, even if Hamilton won today’s race, securing only third place would still be beneficial for Qin Miao in terms of overall results.
As long as the race victory wasn’t claimed by Verstappen, Qin Miao would have the advantage.
After all, the point gap between second and third place is definitely smaller than the gap between first and second place.
But for drivers who have entered championship-contending teams like Mercedes and Red Bull, who doesn’t want to achieve a better result on the track?
And after accelerating for a lap, Verstappen did not shake off Qin Miao, but he was indeed 0.5 seconds faster than himself in the previous lap.
Then naturally, Verstappen went for a tire change.
Originally, all Red Bull fans felt assured seeing Verstappen pit, with no worries about any mistakes during the tire change.
After all, the Red Bull team’s strategy and tire change crew have been consistently the most stable and best among all teams.
But Red Bull’s tire crew, who might not make a mess the entire season, provided quite a spectacle at the United States Grand Prix today for all Red Bull fans.
After Verstappen parked perfectly in position, the tire change speed of the other three wheels maintained Red Bull’s usual speed and level.
However, the tire gun for the left front wheel failed to promptly remove Verstappen’s car tire, and once removed, the gun couldn’t exert enough force to tighten the nut on the newly fitted tire.
After a couple of failed attempts, the tire crew finally completed the tire change after switching to a new tire gun.
This delay directly resulted in the pit stop tire change taking 11.1 seconds.
The potential race victory that Verstappen could have achieved was ruined just like that.
Moreover, Leclerc, with over an 8-second time gap from Verstappen, pitted on the same lap alongside Verstappen.
By the time Verstappen finished changing tires, Leclerc had already completed his change and exited the tire change area.
Verstappen had been overtaken by Leclerc right in the pit lane.
Initially in today’s race, the speeds of Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari cars were almost similar.
If the gap was five to six seconds, Verstappen might have bridged that time difference with his skill given a little effort.
But the 11.1 seconds of tire change time really makes one feel despair.
As expected, Verstappen directly expressed in the team radio, "Beautiful, So fucking beautiful!"
In short, Verstappen was astounded by the tire change performed by the team’s tire crew.
The Red Bull team was also in no position to reply to Verstappen’s team radio, since they were at fault first, so they could only obediently endure the scolding.