How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 994 387: Hamilton Is Forever My Big Brother (Part 1)

Qin Miao also switched to a new set of soft tires and came out of the team garage.At this moment, Leclerc had already set the fastest lap time in the qualifying session, 1:11.376, a full 0.2 seconds faster than his teammate Sainz. This shows that Leclerc is quite familiar with the Monte Carlo track.

Leclerc's time was a full 0.536 seconds faster than Qin Miao's fastest flying lap in Q2.

Seeing this, Qin Miao felt a bit troubled; with such a big time gap, even with Hamilton towing, he might not be able to beat it, right?

But Qin Miao quickly composed himself.

Do your best and leave the rest to fate.

Do everything you can.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Miao started his warm-up lap.

At this time, the commentators from Five-Star Sports, using their years of experience, noticed from the Q2 replay of Qin Miao's flying lap that Qin Miao had already fully exploited the limits of the Mercedes W13.

Sighing over Qin Miao's unfortunate situation and Mercedes team's decline.

However, while discussing, Bing keenly noticed that as Qin Miao's warm-up lap was about to end, Hamilton, who had completed his first flying lap in Q1, did not enter the pit between T18 and T19 but just slowed down slightly.

As soon as Qin Miao passed T18, Hamilton suddenly accelerated out of the corner.

At this moment, Qin Miao closely followed Hamilton.

"What?! Hamilton!? After finishing his flying lap, he didn't pit? Is he trying to help Qin Miao catch the slipstream?" Bing's voice was filled with disbelief and surprise.

"Ah?" Both Bing and Fei immediately looked over.

Hamilton's timing to accelerate was clever, not at all like a seven-time champion who doesn't often help tow, but rather skilled like an experienced number 2 driver.

Exiting the slow corner at T19, Hamilton was 0.7 seconds ahead of Qin Miao, and since this season the tail turbulence was minimal, this starting gap meant Hamilton's car's turbulence wouldn't affect Qin Miao's aerodynamics significantly.

T19 being a slow corner, the mechanical grip of the car was more important here.

Soon, the two Mercedes cars powered up, one after the other, entering the only DRS zone on the Monte Carlo track.

Qin Miao's car also accelerated 5% faster than under normal conditions due to Hamilton's slipstream.

Even in the DRS zone, Hamilton, to minimize the air resistance on Qin Miao's car, didn't open his DRS, relying entirely on the car's ERS full release to maintain speed.

And this wasn't even the extent of Hamilton's efforts to provide slipstream for Qin Miao; Hamilton remained from the exit of T19 all the way to the braking point before T1.

As a result, when Qin Miao reached 50 meters before the braking point, his front wing was just five or six centimeters from Hamilton's rear diffuser.

Nevertheless, Qin Miao still refused to let off the throttle.

Many experienced viewers, who already found the slipstream strategy challenging on the Monte Carlo track, felt that Mercedes's current slipstream strategy had failed.

Because the position before T1's braking point was too narrow, Hamilton had nowhere to let Qin Miao pass.

Even Toto, sitting on the command seat above the Mercedes pit garage, frowned upon seeing Hamilton's actions, thinking things were not looking good.

Seeing this, Qin Miao also felt a pang of anxiety because Hamilton had missed the last point to let him pass.

"It's over, it's wasted."

ps. Dear patrons, it's the end of the month, please give some votes.