Chapter 1268 - 476: Old Man’s Joy (Part 2)
But this medal is ultimately just a souvenir; it feels pretty heavy in the hand, so this sprint race winner’s medal might really be gold-plated.
Anyway, once the sprint race was over, all the drivers also got their starting positions for tomorrow’s main race.
Qin Miao will start the main race from pole.
What’s unclear is, if you didn’t get P1 in qualifying but you win the sprint and then bring home the win in the main race from P1, will that still count as a Pole to win?
...
The post-race podium ceremony ended quickly.
After the race, the broadcast director also put out the drivers’ standings and points from today’s race.
1: Qin Miao +8
2: Hamilton +7
3: Verstappen +6
4: Sainz +5
5: Perez +4
6: Leclerc +3
7: Norris +2
8: Magelsen +1
Starting from pole still brings a considerable advantage. Even though Magelsen’s numbers on the "most overtaken" list once again climbed significantly, he still managed to scrape a point out of the sprint.
This is the accumulated advantage of pole; in our country’s words, even a dying camel is bigger than a horse.
Anyway, the sprint race was finally done.
After wrapping up all the post-race duties, Qin Miao cheerfully headed back to the hotel. With this race, his lead over Verstappen has grown even bigger, so his pressure going into a normal Grand Prix weekend is much lighter. Less pressure means his whole body naturally relaxes.
But once back at the hotel, Qin Miao didn’t let himself slack off just because his starting position for tomorrow’s main race is pretty good.
After all, Verstappen is right behind him. Qin Miao has never been one to give his rivals chances to attack him; if he can, he doesn’t mind completely crushing his opponents.
So he still watched the race replays, still studied the cornering techniques; he didn’t put any of that aside.
The night passed uneventfully. The next day, Qin Miao arrived in the paddock as usual.
But what weighed on his mind a bit was that, although the odds are very high that today he could seal the title one race early, for now Verstappen still hasn’t lost all chances of winning this Grand Prix.
Yet under that premise, when he got to the team’s hospitality area, he saw a bunch of clothes and champagne and other consumables prepared to celebrate his second world championship.
For someone like Qin Miao, who grew up in China and has watched countless domestic TV dramas, popping the champagne early is not something to brag about; you could even say it’s not very auspicious.
It’s just that maybe they don’t have that kind of taboo abroad, so all these supplies are just sitting there swaggeringly in the team’s hospitality storage.
He scratched his head helplessly, then steadied his emotions, ready to shift all his focus to the main race that was about to begin.
But when Qin Miao returned to his own lounge, planning to slack off a bit before the pre-race fan meet-and-greet, maybe play two rounds of Civilization for fun, he pushed open the door—and the people in front of him made him freeze in surprise.
His mom, his wife, and his in-laws were all there.
Seeing his family in his lounge, Qin Miao’s brain blue-screened for a second, and then his mouth ran faster than his brain: "What are you all doing here?"
Hearing that, his mom rolled her eyes and said irritably, "Today’s your chance to maybe win another world championship. Meng has been stuck at home too long these days, so we figured we’d bring her to watch the race."
Qin Miao looked at his wife with a half-laughing, half-crying expression and said, "If you were coming, at least give me a heads-up. I opened my lounge door and saw you all sitting here, you really scared me. I wasn’t mentally prepared at all."
...
After seeing Qin Miao, Qimeng and the others left. After all, this is Qin Miao’s lounge, and it’s not that big. With just him, it feels fairly spacious, but pack this many people in and it clearly gets crowded.
Plus, having them there really would affect Qin Miao’s pre-race preparation to some extent.
Under normal circumstances, Qimeng and the family would definitely go to the team’s garage to watch the main race today. That’s the closest spot to the team’s core, and you can observe the driver’s condition much better there.
But Qimeng is pregnant, and an environment that noisy with such a huge flow of people isn’t exactly friendly to a pregnant woman.
Not to mention F1 engine noise is notoriously loud.
Even if those noises don’t actually affect the baby in her belly, in their anxious, overprotective state his in-laws and his mom absolutely wouldn’t allow Qimeng to watch the race from the garage.
It’s not hard to guess where they’ll be watching the race: in the VIP viewing area above the garage.
Away from the sunlight and the roar of F1 engines, with food and air conditioning—couldn’t be more comfortable.
And after learning that Qimeng, his in-laws, and his mom had all come, Qin Miao suddenly felt a bit nervous.
Wicked woman, disturbing my inner peace!
...
The drivers’ parade and the pre-race national anthem segment don’t need much elaboration here. For all F1 drivers, whether you’re a rookie in your first year or not, by this point in the season all of this is second nature.
Very soon, Qin Miao appeared on the grid and stood by his car, waiting for the race start.
At this moment, the track in front of Qin Miao’s car had already been cleared, leaving only the tarmac.
After a short rest and working with Reyes and the others to complete the final checks on the car, all pre-race preparations for the main event were done.
Qin Miao climbed into his car and waited for the race to begin.
Meanwhile, it was already 2 a.m. back home. That’s not exactly a friendly timeslot for middle-aged and older viewers.
But today’s race will decide whether Qin Miao can secure his second world championship one race early, so all three commentators from Five-Star Sports were in the studio.
At the same time, with the domestic influence of Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu growing by the day, plus the boost of that previous world title,
the TV ratings for this Grand Prix in China alone were up more than 130% compared to the same race last year.
And this is at 2 a.m., with people still having to go to work tomorrow.
Plenty of fans did take a day off in advance for this race, but there are still a lot of fans stubbornly staying up all night to watch.
The surge in domestic ratings made FOM and the FIA sit up and take notice. Several teams that used to ignore Chinese fans have now opened official social media accounts in China.
There are even a few people in the FIA quietly discussing whether they can somehow drag out the suspense of Qin Miao’s title defense until the next race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
It sounds unfair, but as mentioned earlier, F1 at its core is a commercial alliance; only during the races themselves is it truly a competitive sport.
Sometimes, even the sporting side of F1 has to yield to the commercial side.
Because of that, F1 manipulating races for its own interests happens more often than people think—it’s just that there’s no hard proof.
With the Brazilian Grand Prix this week providing such a big traffic boost, if they really could extend the championship fight to a future race in Abu Dhabi, tons of sponsors would definitely want to jump in with last-minute deals.
Then F1 wouldn’t just expand its influence in Asia; it would also earn an extra chunk of money.
Most importantly, the FIA president would be delighted, since Ben Sulayem is from the Middle East.
This wave would directly bring a massive influx of attention and traffic to Middle Eastern countries.
But given the current form and strength Qin Miao has shown, it’s very hard to "manage" or "control" him when he’s leading.
Even Mercedes probably couldn’t do it.
So after those people did their evaluation and decided it wasn’t feasible, they quietly dropped the idea.