Chapter 1232 - 464: Soaring in the Sky
This collision was clearly Stroll’s fault, as he switched lanes towards Alonso’s car just when Alonso was about to pass him on the inside. The timing was very late, practically as Alonso’s front wing was about to overtake Stroll’s, Stroll changed lanes.
Thus, Alonso basically had no time to react and evade.
However, this accident can also be classified as a racing incident, and Stroll’s defensive action in this race won’t face severe penalties.
But in the next race, it’s likely he will face a grid penalty.
The safety car lasted from lap 22 to lap 25, and Qin Miao’s restart from the line was the same as before; he didn’t lose any position during this restart.
Following that, the track conditions began to bewilder the on-site audience.
In front, Qin Miao was under continuous pressure from Verstappen behind, the defense was difficult, the defensive lines were odd, but Qin Miao still wasn’t overtaken by Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Hamilton behind Verstappen was also continuously trying to take advantage, occasionally launching highly threatening exploratory attacks on Verstappen, making it difficult for Verstappen to save enough ERS energy to attempt overtaking Qin Miao and could only try attacking at certain braking points and the end of ERS zones.
But there was another issue, after the improvements at the end of the season, the Mercedes car’s air resistance was greatly reduced, enhancing its straight-line acceleration and top speed.
The current W13B is a muscle car, and the setup of Qin Miao’s car in this race was mostly focused on straight-line acceleration and top speed.
Even with the assistance of DRS, when attacking Qin Miao, Verstappen always seemed just a breath away, just a little short of overtaking Qin Miao, but that little bit was out of reach.
A feeling of so close, yet so far.
Verstappen’s main target, Qin Miao, was also not having an easy time; on one hand, Qin Miao had to focus heavily on observing and predicting Verstappen’s next attack routes, on the other hand, Qin Miao also had to race and monitor his tire wear.
Among the top three drivers, the most relaxed was actually Hamilton, Sainz behind him was tangled with Perez, and Leclerc was pressuring Perez from behind.
The two Red Bull cars found themselves in an awkward position.
Verstappen was sandwiched between two Mercedes cars, and Perez was sandwiched between two Ferrari cars.
Behind, Alonso, who had fallen to the tail of the pack, started quickly catching up, making up for the loss from the accident.
By the time the race reached lap 30, Alonso had already gained two positions.
And in the same lap, Leclerc first broke the unusual sandwich phenomenon between the two Red Bull cars, forcibly inserting into Perez’s inside line at the end of the DRS straight on T12, taking Perez’s position to move up to fifth.
Two laps later on lap 32, Qin Miao was informed by the team: if he continued to defend strongly, the tires wouldn’t last, and Qin Miao would have to face a two-stop strategy.
After thinking for a moment, Qin Miao ultimately decided to go for two stops.
But the team’s message clearly affected Qin Miao’s mentality, after all, they were saying one-stop for a while, then two-stop, back and forth, anyone’s state would surely waver.
Coupled with the fact that Qin Miao relied not only on the car’s top speed but also on his defensive skills and driving lines to defend against Verstappen, Qin Miao slightly slipped up and allowed Verstappen to seize the opportunity at T12, forcing into Qin Miao’s inside line.
Naturally, Qin Miao didn’t have a good way to deal with it.
Even though he took a crossover line, the straight between T12 and T13 was too short for Qin Miao to showcase his car’s acceleration.
Plus, Verstappen knew that Qin Miao’s ultimate braking capability wasn’t any weaker than his former teammate Ricardo’s.
So at T13 braking into the turn, Verstappen still took the inside line, not giving Qin Miao any chance.
"I have to say, Verstappen’s overtake this time was indeed clean and decisive, lacking the previous gunpowder flavor he had with Hamilton on the track." Seeing Verstappen’s overtake on Qin Miao, the Five-Star Sports commentators said with a wry smile.
"Qin Miao also performed great in today’s race, after all, he defended against Verstappen for so long, overheating tires and ERS battery depletion were almost unavoidable, and given Qin Miao’s current ranking on the points table, letting Verstappen win a Grand Prix race is also acceptable." Libao spoke more to comfort the fans watching this race.
After moving to second place, Qin Miao also felt somewhat helpless, as Libao mentioned, after defending against Verstappen for so long, his car’s ERS battery was depleted, tire reserves were okay, and there wasn’t any overheating issue, just lack of power, and the car recharged slowly.
So next, Qin Miao began charging the car’s ERS battery.
As for Hamilton behind Qin Miao...he was trapped in the DRS train.
Qin Miao, on one hand, had Verstappen’s DRS, on the other hand, his own defensive skills, if Hamilton overtook Qin Miao in such circumstances, then Qin Miao had nothing more to say, Hamilton was indeed awesome, and this number one driver position wasn’t worth keeping, it could be handed to him.