How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 261 Chapter 264: The consequences of a head-on confrontation (6K, 916 additional updates)

On the 43rd lap of the starting straight, Qin Miao did not guard Hamilton behind him, allowing Hamilton to pass him on the starting straight using DRS.

This is not because the team issued a team order. The main reason is that Qin Miao's current set of tires does not have a lap speed as fast as Hamilton's new medium tires.

No matter how incredible Qin Miao's tire protection ability was, he would never be able to violate the rules of physics and use a set of tires with almost no grip to run faster than the new tires of Hamilton, the seven-time champion.

At this time, Verstappen stopped three times early and went to the back to try to undercut himself and Hamilton.

Qin Miao and Hamilton originally ran on different tactics. At this time, it was a bit difficult to stop Hamilton.

So Qin Miao let Hamilton go.

After letting Hamilton go, Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him started another long-distance test.

At this point in the race, the gap between the three was revealed, as well as where Qin Miao would be after pitting, and how many seconds behind Verstappen.

The excitement just now will never happen again.

However, when the competitive relationship between the three championship drivers in the front group entered a brief period of peace, it was not that there were no exciting scenes on the rear.

At this time, Perez, who started at the end of the team, had already made his way to No. 11. In front of him were the two drivers of McLaren, Ricciardo and Norris.

And at this time, Perez was only 2 seconds behind Ricciardo. With Red Bull's racing performance, it was only a matter of time before Perez could overtake Norris in front of him.

In the following laps, when Qin, Miao, Hamilton and Verstappen were running their own pace, the director showed the camera to the other drivers.

But soon, as the race came to the 49th lap, the audience who had just been watching the fight between Giovinazzi and Vettel suddenly found that the director turned the camera, and then appeared in front of them was a neutral camera. The Mercedes-Benz W12 with flat tires slowly entered the pit channel.

"Is this Qin Miao?"

"Yes, Qin Miao, he ran a set of medium tires for 49 laps before he came into the pits. His speed didn't drop too much, so only he could do it." Fei Ge said with emotion.

This is Qin Miao's first pit stop in this race, and it is also the last planned pit stop. At this time, he has a 10.7 second gap with Verstappen behind him. After the pit stop, there is a high probability that he will fall behind Verstappen. 10 seconds behind Tappan.

Qin Miao was going to put on soft tires when he entered the pit. According to Mercedes' own test data, if both sides ran the race with normal tire wear, Qin Miao would be better off using soft tires in one lap than using medium tires. The faster one is 0.9 seconds faster.

And if he advances quickly regardless of losses, Qin Miao, who uses soft tires, can be more than 1.5 seconds faster than the medium tires in each lap.

Although Verstappen was not driving a Mercedes car, the speed gap between the tires of the two sides should be very similar.

So if nothing unexpected happens, Qin Miao will catch up with Verstappen in front about 11 laps later, and there will be 11 laps left before the end of the race.

Qin Miao had enough time to attack Verstappen in front of him.

As for what to do with Hamilton in front after Qin Miao passed Verstappen?
If the question appears on the faces of Mercedes-Benz executives and staff at this time, they will hesitate for a while, and then say with some unconfidence: "Let's talk about it if it exceeds the limit."

And what about Hamilton at this time?He started to protect his tires after overtaking Qin Miao and widening the gap between himself and Qin Miao to 5 seconds.

Although Hamilton has run this set of medium tires for 21 laps, thanks to Hamilton's deliberate protection of his tires since passing Qin Miao, his tire wear is still within control.

It's not hard to guess what Hamilton's thoughts were at this point, even though the team's previous strategy for Hamilton was to stop twice.

However, the competition and the team did not force Hamilton to stop twice.

Hamilton feels that with Qin Miao's defensive ability and Verstappen's speed, if he really chooses to follow the team's plan in this race, the final championship will most likely not fall to him.

His teammate Qin Miao is planning to finish the race as soon as he stops. Qin Miao also has a brand new set of soft tires. With Qin Miao's ability to protect tires, Qin Miao will definitely finish the last stop on soft tires.

So Qin Miao will definitely have a fight with Verstappen.

I believe that with Verstappen's defense and his desire for the championship, Verstappen cannot give up his position to Qin Miao too easily.

The two of them are bound to have a good fight at the back for a while, and then I will have more time to distance myself from the two of them and protect my tires.

As long as the two of them fight for a little longer, no matter who wins in the end, they will benefit.

After thinking of this, although Hamilton did not communicate with his team staff, he had secretly decided not to pit at the end of the race to see if he could run the entire race with the current set of medium tires.

Even if he loses the bet this time, Gasly behind him is almost 63 seconds behind him, and the worst he can do is take home No. 3.

If Hamilton loses the bet, he won't lose more. If he wins the bet, the gain will be very considerable. If he doesn't do anything, he will get a second place at most.

When Hamilton is faced with two options, it is self-evident which one he will choose.

Naturally, Qin Miao didn't know what his teammates were thinking. He controlled the speed of the car below 60 kilometers per hour and turned on the pit stop mode. All Qin Miao could do at this time was to do the same as every pit stop in the past. I also silently prayed in my heart that the tire changer of the team would not cause any trouble to me.

The car was lifted and lowered, and brand new red tires were installed on Qin Miao's car.

After landing, Qin Miao kicked the accelerator and the car tilted directly out of his parking space.

The tire changing time displayed in the lower right corner of the broadcast screen is 2.5 seconds.

"2.5 seconds is a bit slow. It's 0.3 seconds less than Verstappen just now. In these 0.3 seconds, you may lose a position on the track!" After all, he is a driver from his own country. Although this tire change result is the best in all F1 The team's tire changing time can be considered qualified. Even for Alfa Romeo and Haas, this result is a dream, but Feige is still not too satisfied with it.

After all, in Fei Ge's view, this was the advantage that Qin Miao had gained through hard work on the field. The tire changer lost it in 0.3 seconds after changing the tire. They felt it was not worth it for Qin Miao.

However, Qin Miao is already very satisfied with this. At least in his career, he has never had to change a tire for more than 10 seconds, or even have the bolts stuck in the tire and unable to be removed.

So after completing the tire change and driving in the pit area, Qin Miao did not forget to praise the tire changer of his team in the TR of the team: "Well done, everyone, watch mine next."

The driver's TR is connected to the team staff's TR. The only difference is that Qin Miao, Qin Miao's track engineer and Toto can talk, but other technicians can only listen. The frequency band they use to communicate is different from the driver.

"Copy that, we're all waiting for you to show off Verstappen." Franky's voice sounded in Qin Miao's TR.

The Red Bull staff who were listening to the Mercedes TR team frowned when they heard this.

Why are you Mercedes people so rude to you?

……

After coming out of the pit area, Qin Miao did fall 11 seconds behind Verstappen. With 22 laps left before the end of the race, Qin Miao began his pursuit.

The director stopped showing footage of other drivers at this time. The broadcast camera focused on Qin Miao's car, and the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was shown directly below the broadcast camera.

Because Verstappen uses the old medium tires and Qin Miao uses the new soft tires, the speed gap between the two is very obvious, so basically every corner can clearly see the difference between the two. The gap between people is rapidly narrowing.

Basically, a timing segment will be reduced by 0.4~0.6 seconds.

The three commentators from Five-Star Sports had less to say at this time. At this moment, they had completely brought themselves into Qin Miao's perspective, and they couldn't help but become nervous for Qin Miao.

What if I don’t catch up?What if a tire blows out due to running too long, or the tire fails quickly?What if after catching up with Verstappen, the grip of the tires is gone and you can't overtake Verstappen?
In short, they all worried about issues that Qin Miao had not considered.

But Qin Miao on the track is the most focused one.

At this time, all he could think about was controlling his car and running at his best speed over and over again on the track.

Even when Qin Miao didn't notice it, he stole the fastest lap from his teammate Hamilton.

But this is normal. It was nearing the end of the race. The drivers had a lot less fuel in their cars. Qin Miao used brand new soft tires after coming out. Although he wanted to catch up with Verstappen after There is enough tire durability for him to try to surpass Verstappen. The running is not that extreme, but he is still very fast.

On lap 50, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen that originally exceeded 11 seconds directly became 10.6 seconds.

On lap 51, the gap became 9.2 seconds.

Lap 52, 8.1 seconds.

Although they knew that Qin Miao would catch up with Verstappen in a short time, all the staff at Red Bull were helpless.

They have done everything they can, and whether they can keep their position can only depend on the drivers on the field.

Finally, on lap 55, Qin Miao, who had been chasing behind, saw the taillights of Verstappen ahead.

On lap 57, he entered the turbulence area behind Verstappen, and Qin Miao's speed dropped significantly.

On the 59th lap, Qin Miao came to the DRS area behind Verstappen and began to put pressure on Verstappen. Qin Miao's skills did not hesitate to throw it on Verstappen's head.

[Verstappen pressure value: 19%]

The close rate of Qin Miao's pursuit of Verstappen was similar to Qin Miao's estimate. Qin Miao really chased Verstappen for one second in one lap, and was behind Verstappen ten laps later.

Now that the offensive and defensive forces are interchanged, the situations of both sides are completely different.At this time, Verstappen not only had to defend Qin Miao's attack, but also had to find a way to catch up with Hamilton in front of him, because there were only 13 laps left before the end of the game.

Although the gap between myself and Hamilton is narrowing every lap, at this time, I am only 6 seconds behind Hamilton.

But with the arrival of Qin Miao, Hamilton's pressure suddenly eased.

At this time, Verstappen's most important task is to defend Qin Miao, who is coming behind him fiercely, rather than chasing Hamilton in front. It can even be said that as long as Verstappen dares to chase Hamilton in front, Qin Miao can kill him in the rear. Take advantage of tires to overtake Verstappen.

If he didn't want to give up his position, Verstappen could only slow down his car and seriously defend Qin Miao behind him.

Hamilton can run his own pace without any scruples until Qin Miao overtakes Verstappen or Qin Miao's tires sink into the cliff point and can no longer pose any threat to Verstappen.

Hamilton felt that when Qin Miao and Verstappen decided on a result, it was already near the end of the game. There was a high probability that he would miss out on the championship in this game.

And Hamilton was not the only one to have such an idea. After seeing the situation on the field and the number of laps left before the end of the game, the three commentators from Five Star Sports directly asserted: "It's over, it's over, there's no way Qin Miao can compete with him in this game." Hamilton went to compete for the championship, and Hamilton's decision to stop was really good, and he took advantage of his teammate Qin Miao's pit stop, killing two birds with one stone."

"It can only be said that Mercedes still values ​​Hamilton more after all. After discovering that there was an opportunity to steal a championship from Verstappen, and there was Qin Miao behind him to contain Verstappen, Mercedes decisively chose to let Hamilton Stop, choose to run a long stint with old yellow tires." Brother Bing also nodded in agreement.

"Although this choice does look amazing, it can be called a stroke of genius." Zhou Haoran also interjected: "But it still depends on when Qin Miao can surpass Verstappen. If it is fast, the game will still be suspenseful.

However, I personally feel that Hamilton has the greatest possibility of winning the championship in this game, but he is second and third. Who is more suspenseful. "

……

【Open milk! 】

【well said! 】

[Utilitarian milk is not advisable (annoyed)]

【Hamilton (Danger!)】

[While running, Hamilton found that his steering wheel and accelerator pedal were leaking milk]

[When FIA officials tested the car’s fuel after the race, they found that there was not a drop of oil in Hamilton’s fuel tank, it was all milk]

[The ancient mysterious power from the East silently locks Hamilton]

[Is the five-star poisonous milk going to take effect? 】

Naturally, Hamilton on the field didn't know that three mysterious Eastern magicians were doing this to him. Although his tires were already struggling a little at this time, Hamilton didn't have any worries.

Because based on Hamilton's driving ability for so many years, although his tires are currently struggling, he feels that his set of tires can still allow him to survive the next 12 laps.

And when the race came to lap 59, Hamilton found that the shrinking time gap between himself and Verstappen had stalled, and then the gap widened.

This shows how much pressure Qin Miao put on Verstappen, so much so that Verstappen had to lose more speed to defend Qin Miao.

This is indeed the case. Verstappen clearly felt that Qin Miao still put a lot of pressure on him on the field.

However, Verstappen is not without defensive tricks, which can be used on Qin Miao.

Verstappen is a genius after all. At least when he attacked Qin Miao and was defended by Qin Miao in a deliberately trapping way for so long, Verstappen didn't even go through the post-match summary, he just experienced it himself. After reading it once, he mastered it, learned a lot about Qin Miao's defensive routine, and used it directly on the court.

Also in the first timing section, Qin Miao looked confused as Verstappen in front of him made several mistakes when exiting and entering corners.

At this moment, Qin Miao's eyes were really twitching.

In front of the tauren, right?
Not to mention that Verstappen's recent positioning mistakes were indeed the same as Qin Miao's defense and did not give up the most critical inside line, but you also don't think about it, you Verstappen is such a ruthless track machine. , in the first period of time, he would make so many mistakes in these corners that are not very technical. Is it really reasonable for him?

Therefore, Qin Miao was not fooled at all. Instead, because Verstappen did not take the best exit route, Qin Miao further narrowed the time gap with Verstappen.

Of course, Qin Miao quickly realized why Verstappen made such a defensive move before he reached the high-threat position 0.5 seconds behind Verstappen.

[Verstappen pressure value: 22%]

After being under too much pressure, it is understandable that Verstappen will make some irrational defensive actions.

After that, Qin Miao continued to narrow the time gap with Verstappen and put pressure on him.

But Verstappen is Verstappen after all, and Qin Miao really didn't find a good offensive opportunity for a while.

Until the second timing period of lap 62.

After exiting the DRS area after T10, Qin Miao launched an attack on Verstappen for the first time.

Because of the advantage of the tires, Qin Miao followed Verstappen when exiting the corner and was not pulled away by Verstappen due to the turbulence in the corner.

After exiting the corner, Verstappen started drawing dragons before entering the braking point, while Qin Miao remained unmoved and turned on DRS and started accelerating.

You know, Qin Miao has many advantages now. On the one hand, Qin Miao is using soft tires. Although this set of soft tires has been used for twelve laps at this time, with Qin Miao's tire protection ability, Qin Miao's The speed is still faster than that of Verstappen who uses medium tires, and he will naturally pick up speed faster in the DRS area.

In addition, Qin Miao has not used the ERS power of his car too vigorously while he was behind Verstappen.

On the other hand, Qin Miao's racing engine was replaced with a brand new one at Spa last week. Although Red Bull also replaced Verstappen with a brand new one in order to allow Verstappen to have a better result at his home stadium. Racing parts, but Honda's engine is still inferior to Mercedes' engine.

Do you understand the value of Mercedes-Benz’s powerful engine and industrial aesthetics?

Therefore, Qin Miao also has certain advantages in terms of speed increase.

The most important thing is that Qin Miao has DRS.

So Qin Miao started to use the performance of his car to accelerate without Verstappen's wake, trying to overtake Verstappen from the outside.

Seeing this, Verstappen did not continue to draw dragons on the track and wasted the traction of his car, but he also did not appear in front of Qin Miao to provide Qin Miao with wake.

Instead, it stuck tightly to the inner line of the track.

The DRS area between T10 and T11 of the Zandvoort circuit is not too long. Verstappen feels that Qin Miao can complete wheel-to-wheel with him and even pass him before the braking point by relying on this DRS, but As long as he holds the inside line and brakes, all Qin Miao's advantages will be wiped out.

Even because of this violent increase in speed, Qin Miao's set of soft tires will wear out even more.

The situation on the field was exactly as Verstappen calculated. Although Qin Miao had the speed advantage, he did not absorb Verstappen's wake and even hit the turbulence discharged from both sides of Verstappen's car. Qin Miao The closing rate between Miao and Verstappen was not fast, and the DRS in this section was not long, so before entering the braking point of T11, Qin Miao did not completely surpass Verstappen.

However, before the braking point of T11, Qin Miao did pass Verstappen by half a head.

Afterwards, Qin Miao, who had been robbed of the inside track, took the normal braking route, while Verstappen braked late and did nothing else but block the apex position.

In this way, Qin Miao's best route out of the corner is naturally gone. He can only take a larger arc and then cut the apex of T12.

It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao exited the corner extremely hard this time, so he did not give up his position when exiting T11, and was still wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen.

However, Verstappen took advantage of late braking and slightly overtook Qin Miao.

At this time, Verstappen discovered that Qin Miao had no intention of taking the crossing line, but took the outside line and continued to fight with him in the next corner.

So after exiting the corner, Verstappen began to squeeze Qin Miao's line by relying on his own line rights.

Verstappen's idea is very simple. When you have the right to the line, I will give you face and won't squeeze you out of the track.

But now I brake late, I entered the corner earlier than you, and the line rights are mine. If you honestly don’t compete with me to take the inside line of a corner, I won’t do anything to you. But if you come to compete with me, The inside line of the next corner, then don't blame me for being cruel.

And Qin Miao is not used to you Verstappen. He will get in when there is a gap and go when there is a gap in front of him. After all, you Verstappen braked late and was not as fast as me when exiting the corner. I just want to squeeze in front of you. bend.

The inner thoughts of both of them are to confront each other, and it is self-evident what will happen after the two of them have the same idea at the same time.

When the two entered T12 side by side.

Verstappen squeezed towards the inside line, while Qin Miao took the best exit route and did not hide at all.

Then, amid the exclamations of all the commentators who were paying attention to the race, Qin Miao's and Verstappen's cars collided.

"bump!"

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of carbon fiber breaking reached Qin Miao's ears, along with the sound of tires blowing out, and the sound of tires pressing against the gravel ground and gravel splashing onto the carbon fiber shell of the racing car.

(End of this chapter)