Chapter 1241 - 466: A Not-So-Joyful Victory
Qin Miao curiously said, "Even in this situation, Alonso actually persisted in finishing the race? It seems the quality of Alpine’s car is pretty good."
Hamilton was clearly in an excellent mood today. After hearing Qin Miao’s words, Hamilton jokingly said, "I think, rather than the quality of the car, Alonso definitely hopes his car is a bit faster."
"If I were in Alonso’s position, I indeed wish for the same," Verstappen chimed in.
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After waiting for a little while, staff from the U.S. Grand Prix came to remind the three drivers to get ready to go on stage for the award ceremony.
The third, second, and first-place drivers went on stage one after another, followed by the playing of the British national anthem, then receiving the U.S. Grand Prix trophy, and finally spraying champagne. Today’s U.S. Grand Prix has come to a complete end.
After the race ended, the live broadcast showed the scores and rankings of the drivers following the end of the race:
P1: Hamilton +25
P2: Qin Miao +19 (fastest lap)
P3: Verstappen +15
P4: Leclerc +12
P5: Perez +10
P6: Sainz +8
P7: Norris +6
P8: Alonso +4
P9: Vettel +2
P10: Zhou Guanyu +1
Qin Miao’s fastest lap in this race was indisputable. After all, throughout the main race stage, only Qin Miao used a brand new set of soft tires to run a lap in the main race, thus it was only fitting he secured the fastest lap.
Actually, the Red Bull team initially planned to have Perez return to the pit with two laps remaining in the race to change to a brand new set of soft tires.
Then return to the track and swipe away Qin Miao’s fastest lap.
But during the latter part of the race, Sainz seemed as though he found the solution to Ferrari’s tire overheating issue and quickly approached the dangerous position after Perez’s pit stop.
As a result, the window behind Perez basically did not allow him to pit, if he pitted, he might lose his current position.
Calculating a point from the fastest lap against two race ranking points is relatively straightforward.
From Red Bull’s perspective, ensuring Qin Miao doesn’t get this point is clearly more important.
However, considering Perez’s points right now are just 44 points ahead of Hamilton.
Judging by Hamilton’s recent performance on the track, in the remaining three races of the season, Hamilton might well chase down Perez’s 44 points.
Perez blocking Hamilton behind him to help Verstappen is fine, but asking Perez to sacrifice his own points to aid Verstappen is out of the question.
In the end, facing the threat from Ferrari and Perez’s own concerns, Perez did not act recklessly on the track.
Leclerc returned to his familiar and comfortable fourth place, staying firm in that position.
The most surprising were Alonso and Vettel.
These two old drivers faced many unforeseen incidents in today’s race. Alonso got into an accident in the race, ended up at the back after coming out of the pit lane, but despite that, Brother Tou still climbed to eighth place in 56 laps and secured six points.
On the other hand, Vettel’s 16-second pit stop directly ruined his race today. Even putting a driver with a not-so-good mindset in Vettel’s position would likely be uninterested in continuing the race.
Even returning to the track, they would probably perform poorly due to sheer resignation.
It can only be said that veteran drivers still have their persistence, and their persistence has been justly rewarded.
This gave the impatient youngsters in the paddock a good lesson.
Also, due to the impressive performance of the two veteran drivers in today’s race, they were voted by the audience as the best driver and second-best driver of today’s race, with only a 2% difference in votes between the two.