How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 982 383: Saturday gogogo, Sunday nonono_2

Afterwards Verstappen naturally quickly widened the time gap with Qin Miao, while Perez behind Qin Miao began to close in on him.However, when he saw that the person behind him was Perez, Qin Miao didn't feel too much pressure from him.

After all, compared to Verstappen, who is incredibly difficult to defend against, Perez is much easier.

Besides, Perez has been racing in F1 for so long that his driving habits are completely fixed.

Qin Miao found it very easy to understand Perez's driving style and manner by reviewing his recent race footage and onboard videos.

Therefore, Qin Miao basically didn't think much of Perez.

However, as the race went on and reached lap 11, Perez was close to the slipstream zone behind Qin Miao. Just when Perez was reluctantly preparing to attack Qin Miao, Verstappen, who had just overtaken Qin Miao, suddenly slipped off the track at the T4 corner.

To be noted, the way Verstappen went off was identical to Sainz's, where the rear wheels slipped suddenly during cornering, losing grip and sliding forward.

Initially, when Sainz went off at this spot, many people thought it was due to his poor driving skills, as he even had trouble cornering in such a place.

However, with Verstappen going off the track here too, it indirectly proved to the audience that it wasn't a driver's technical issue but rather that the wind in this area affected their control of the car.

When Verstappen got back on the track from the buffer zone, he fell directly behind Zhou Guanyu, ranking sixth.

And Qin Miao inexplicably returned to second place, with Leclerc still in first.

By now, the race had reached lap 11, and the lap times of drivers using soft tires were no longer faster than Qin Miao, who was the only one using medium compound tires.

So at this time, many teams called their drivers into the pits.

But all this had nothing to do with Qin Miao.

What he needed to do now was to maintain a distance neither too close nor too far from Perez, and see if he could box Perez in front of Bottas, forming a DRS train behind himself, and use this train to block the following Verstappen.

Now that heaven granted an opportunity, Qin Miao, who originally had no expectation of finishing second, began plotting anew.

Meanwhile, Perez felt his scalp tingling as he saw Qin Miao's car slowing down again.

However, Bottas behind Sainz felt quite comfortable seeing the distance between the cars ahead getting closer.

After all, with the strength of the Alfa Romeo car, fixing his position within the DRS train would undoubtedly be advantageous for him.

But Zhou Guanyu...

He was 2 seconds behind Bottas at this point, and although Qin Miao was already holding back cars and Zhou was doing his best to defend against Verstappen behind him, he was still overtaken by Verstappen before reaching Bottas' DRS zone.

He really wanted to do something to help Qin Miao, but his own abilities and car capabilities indeed didn't allow him to do much.

Therefore, after Verstappen overtook Zhou Guanyu, his position moved up to 5th.

Yet when Verstappen caught up to Bottas, seeing a Mercedes, a Red Bull, and an Alfa Romeo all ahead in the DRS zones, he really felt his scalp tingling.

How come this DRS train formed again???

Qin Miao!!!

You're relentless, aren't you!!!

The most headache-inducing thing for Verstappen was if the driver in front of him at this time were Perez, then he could have the team ask Perez to give him the position.

But the key point was that it was Bottas in front of him, with Perez ahead of Bottas.

...

Thus, Verstappen realized that wanting to surpass Qin Miao on track in today's race using normal driving strategies was probably not feasible; he could only rely on the undercut strategy.

At this time, other teams' drivers also began choosing to pit in during this first pit window.

However, Qin Miao's DRS train did not continue long on the track either.

On lap 14, Verstappen opted to pit for a tire change.

Coming out, he was positioned 24 seconds behind Qin Miao.

Actually, before Verstappen pitted, the team had observed Red Bull's actions and immediately asked Qin Miao for his opinion: "Verstappen may pit for new tires, do you want to follow his rhythm and pit as well?"

Based on today's race performance, the team could clearly see that Qin Miao had intentions of deliberately targeting Verstappen.

However, after receiving this question from the team, Qin Miao promptly declined.

In this race, targeting Verstappen wasn't even about competing for the Grand Prix victory; it was about snatching second place from him.

Now that Verstappen was lagging behind, there was no need to stubbornly stick to him. Ultimately, if the car's hard strength wasn't as good as the opponent's, he could defend against him relying on personal skills when the opponent was behind, but in comparing the team and car performance, Qin Miao couldn't gain any benefit.

Apart from Verstappen, Zhou Guanyu pitted on lap 14, and Bottas on lap 15.

Next, Qin Miao cruised behind Leclerc using his medium tires.

Moreover, as Qin Miao's current tire durability was better than Leclerc's soft tires, he was chasing Leclerc at a pace of 0.4 seconds per lap.

Yet, it was still the same point; the advantage Leclerc accumulated earlier was so large that unless he held on the track until lap 25, Qin Miao's chances of catching up were extremely slim.

Qin Miao's cruise lasted quite long.

Even after Leclerc pitted, Qin Miao continued cruising.

And his pace remained decent.

Not much slower than those drivers who had changed to medium tires.

Despite drivers such as Verstappen and Leclerc chasing him by 0.9 seconds per lap after pitting, Qin Miao still had at least a 17-second gap as he pitted one time less than them.

Considering Qin Miao's defensive abilities and the possibility of other drivers pitting two or even three times in the race.

Qin Miao's position was rather competitive.

On lap 27, Leclerc had closed in to 7 seconds behind Qin Miao. Given the current situation, for Qin Miao, although he was leading, being overtaken by Leclerc was merely a matter of time.

At this moment, an unexpected occurrence happened.

From the start of the race till now, Leclerc's pace, which had been quite impressive, suddenly degraded.

And he was quickly overtaken by Verstappen behind him.

When the live broadcast director focused the camera on Leclerc, the team radio could clearly capture Leclerc's powerless and desperate shout: "No! No! No!

What happened? No Power."

Soon the audience saw Leclerc's car significantly slow down, eventually and leisurely driving back to the pit, where he retired.

Is it fitting to say 'as expected of Ferrari'?

Even though Verstappen knew he shouldn't laugh at Leclerc's misfortune, his lips curled involuntarily watching Leclerc being overtaken from his left.

Even the lingering discomfort of being blocked by Qin Miao earlier dissipated completely.

The time advantage Qin Miao helped create for you has any value? None! Merely an illusion!

Currently, Leclerc stands just 26 points ahead of Verstappen on the leaderboard; if Verstappen secures the race victory and logs the fastest lap, he can tie with Leclerc in the overall driver championship points.

Thus, at this moment, Verstappen is exceptionally happy.