Chapter 1446 - 545: Toxic Support
Being overtaken, Leclerc’s emotions remained relatively stable at this moment. After all, for Leclerc, being overtaken by Verstappen was nothing to be too surprised about. It was an objective fact that the Ferrari car’s performance was lacking this season, and he had mentally prepared for this before the race started.
In the face of Verstappen overtaking him, Leclerc felt very calm internally.
However, at this moment, another person on the track who temporarily had little to do with Verstappen couldn’t remain calm after learning of the top speed Verstappen achieved in this race.
Because Qin Miao discovered, damn, how does this Red Bull car seem even faster than in yesterday’s sprint race?
Damn, could it be that Red Bull is still hiding something?
Upon realizing this possibility, Qin Miao immediately felt alarm bells ringing in his heart.
No longer thinking about maintaining his own pace, Qin Miao deliberately slowed down, allowing Hamilton into his own DRS zone.
Even though Qin Miao knew that with the straight-line acceleration capability of the W14, if he let Hamilton enter his DRS zone, the Old Man would have a high possibility of overtaking him, especially since the W14’s DRS efficiency was also very high.
But Qin Miao also knew that if he didn’t let the Old Man into his DRS zone, given Verstappen’s speed, he could very likely take down both him and Hamilton one by one.
Rather than being overtaken by Verstappen when he had a tire and speed advantage and then trying to overtake him later in the race using his own tire advantage, Qin Miao preferred to nip Verstappen’s threat in the bud.
Seeing Qin Miao suddenly slow down took Hamilton by surprise, and he even wondered if Qin Miao’s car had a problem.
However, Hamilton quickly realized he was overthinking. After a simple assessment of the situation, he understood that Qin Miao was preparing for a DRS train with him.
Recalling that Verstappen had directly entered his DRS zone after overtaking Leclerc, Hamilton felt a bit sentimental.
Qin Miao, this guy, truly deserves to be one of the highest-rated defensive drivers in F1 history. His lap speed wasn’t slow while still having the presence of mind to observe the situation behind him.
Comparing his younger self to the current Qin Miao, Hamilton immediately felt that his younger self indeed wasn’t as good as the current Qin Miao.
As for Verstappen, after overtaking Leclerc, he was thinking of easily taking Hamilton on the next lap.
After all, before acting on Leclerc, Verstappen had already noticed the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton had widened to over a second.
However, after overtaking Leclerc, Verstappen was stunned because in the DRS zone, Hamilton’s rear wing was open, despite normally not having DRS, and in front of Hamilton was another Mercedes car.
"Damn it! Qin Miao, are you done?!!"
Despite immediately starting to curse, at this moment, Verstappen found himself powerless against the two Mercedes cars forming a train in front of him.
Because in the fifth lap’s start/finish straight DRS zone, Verstappen ran a top speed of 345 kilometers with DRS, but Hamilton reached a top speed of 344 kilometers, and even Qin Miao, without DRS, ran at 335 kilometers.
Consequently, Hamilton on the track could only draw close to the front Qin Miao, without being able to make any substantial threat before the braking point.
Verstappen was worse off, following closely behind Hamilton without being able to do anything.
The Red Bull car’s ultra-high DRS efficiency couldn’t be utilized at this time.
At the end of the DRS zone, Hamilton at least managed to stick his nose out on Qin Miao’s inside line, forcing Qin Miao to defend Hamilton’s attack from the inside line first.
Meanwhile, Verstappen behind Hamilton had no sense of participation.
After all, he could only watch from behind these two.
As a result, the three leading drivers were stuck in their positions because Qin Miao had ample experience in forming a train. Although the Old Man always wanted to usurp the position of train driver from Qin Miao, due to Qin Miao’s defensive skills and since Qin Miao deliberately allowed Hamilton behind him, he was naturally confident.
The Old Man initially made a restrained attempt to attack Qin Miao, but as time went on, Hamilton realized.
Although every attack seemed as if he might overtake Qin Miao.
He was always just a breath away, just 5 kilometers per hour lacking in top speed.
At the same time, Hamilton also had to be on guard against Verstappen trying to pull a sneak attack while he was attacking Qin Miao.
In such a situation, a normal person might give up after a couple of attempts if it went on for too long.
After all, it was clear that Qin Miao was relying on superior tuning to use you as a shield.
But who was the Old Man?
𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Seven-time world champion!
If he didn’t have an unwavering belief in winning and a strong desire for victory, could he have attained so many honors?
Thus, the longer the Old Man was blocked behind Qin Miao, the more his inner desire for victory burned.
Even though the race track engineer had already informed Hamilton to slightly slow down his race pace, the Old Man completely ignored it and continued to attack Qin Miao.