How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 272 Chapter 275: Little Clever Russell
If you look at the track from an aerial perspective, the Sochi track will look particularly clean at this time.

The weather was cloudy today, the air temperature was 14 degrees Celsius, and the track temperature was only 17 degrees Celsius because it had just rained. The air humidity was 75%, and the wind was blowing from the southeast with a speed of 8.2 kilometers per hour.

Before the start of the race, Matthew had been driving a water truck to clean up the water on the track.

I believe that after qualifying officially begins, it won’t take long for the water on the track to dry up.

Originally, Red Bull wanted to wait until Verstappen completed three practice sessions before giving Verstappen a new engine.

Verstappen's old engine can still run a practice session, but it can no longer withstand the test of qualifying and the race.

Changing Verstappen's engine after three practice sessions not only collects data, but also protects Verstappen's engine durability to a certain extent.

Now that the third practice has been cancelled, Red Bull saw this and directly replaced Verstappen with a new engine.

Verstappen's engine quota has been completely used up, so Verstappen needs to accept a penalty for replacing the engine this time.

So Red Bull replaced all the replaceable things on Verstappen's car with new ones, which was considered to have eaten up all the time penalties at once.

Therefore, Verstappen will be sent to the rear of the team to start tomorrow's race.

In addition to Verstappen, Leclerc and Latifi also chose to replace engine parts on their cars and were also penalized to the rear of the team.

Then, amid the analysis of the three commentators, the qualifying match began.

At the beginning of qualifying, everyone was wearing semi-wet tires when they went out.

Although the rain stopped at this time, and Matthew was cleaning the water on the track just before the start of the race, there was still a lot of rain on the track.

As mentioned before, the fine asphalt on the Sochi track is not conducive to the evaporation and penetration of rainwater.

Qin Miao didn't feel very comfortable in the first half of Q1. The track was extremely slippery, much worse than the rainy conditions on the Mercedes simulator.

Therefore, in the qualifying stage, Qin Miao was reacquainting himself with the driving style of this track in rainy conditions while skidding.

It is worth mentioning that because Verstappen needs to receive a penalty during the race tomorrow, Red Bull directly gave up tactically in qualifying.

He came out and let Verstappen fly two laps, and the newly installed engine passed the running-in period. After confirming that the engine could run normally, Verstappen was sent back.

Verstappen naturally did not participate in the subsequent Q1.

Friends who often play simulators will definitely remember this track in Sochi.

Because compared with tracks like Silverstone, Spa, and Monza, the Sochi track lacks driving pleasure.

The biggest feature of the Sochi track is that most of the corners on this track are 90° right-angle corners.

When you run a race here, you will have the feeling of being caught by the teacher, who then forcibly tests your basic racing skills.

In the first flying lap of Q1, Qin Miao finally improved his ranking to eighth.

The main reason why it was so slow was because it started to rain again later, and there was no sign of drying out on the track.

Even though the nineteen drivers on the field are now using semi-wet tires to drain the water on the track as much as possible, the effect is very limited. There is no obvious driving line on the track after 1 minutes of Q10.

In the end, when Q1 finished, there were only some less obvious traffic lanes on some corners where the rain was relatively light, and soon after Q1 ended, those traffic lanes were filled with rain again.

Therefore, after Q1 ended, Qin Miao's results were not very satisfactory, and he finally advanced to Q2 in sixth place.

This is not that Qin Miao wants to challenge the fans' blood pressure and ask them to recall the feeling of cerebral infarction. Qin Miao really didn't know that the Sochi track would be so slippery when there was rain, so he was always running in the flying lap. Carefully test the limits of your car and yourself.

So the final result is not very good.

But for Q1, as long as you can advance, you don’t need a bike.

After the clock was stopped in Q1, the eliminated drivers were: Kimi, Mick, Giovinazzi, Mazepin, and Verstappen.

Pan Zi didn't even come out to run in the second half of Q1. No one else was in the car, and the car was covered with a rainproof cloth by the Red Bull people and pushed behind the team's P room.

After a short break to adjust, Q2 started.

The rain really stopped in Q2. After two laps, the drivers on the track began to see obvious traffic lanes. But the problem is still the same. Even if there are traffic lanes on the ground, the ground is still too slippery.

There are very small water droplets in the gaps in the asphalt. Although when the car drives over the asphalt, it will not raise several meters of water mist like other tracks in rainy weather, making the driver behind unable to see the front.

However, drainage difficulties arose. After the 19 F1 cars ran the entire Q1 with semi-wet tires, the track conditions did not improve significantly. There were only traffic lanes on the ground, and there were no signs of drying out.

Therefore, after the first flight lap of Q2, Qin Miao did not enter the P room to adjust, but continued to run outside.

Although water dries slowly, it does not never dry.

As the track conditions continue to improve, lap times will become faster and faster. If you pit at this time, you may miss the opportunity of the fastest lap, so basically all drivers are running on the track during this period.

Just to seize that fleeting opportunity.

But one thing is that Qin Miao still hopes that in the final stage he will have the opportunity to return to the pit area in the last flying lap of Q2 to change to a set of soft tires and run.

It's a pity that Qin Miao didn't even wait for such an opportunity when Q2 ended.

Everyone also ran the final Q2 on semi-wet tires.

Qin Miao finally advanced to Q3 in fourth place.

When Q2 was over and Qin Miao got out of the car to stretch his body, Toto came over and praised Qin Miao's progress.

In the end, the drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Vettel, Gasly, Tsunoda, Latifi, and Leclerc.

Not to mention Latifi, Leclerc ran Q1 of qualifying as a practice race for more than ten minutes because he would be punished and moved to the back of the team. After collecting enough data, like Verstappen, Q2 simply failed. Came out and ran.

In the preparation stage of Q3, the director thoughtfully gave a long-range shot, and on the sea level outside the shot, the thick dark clouds had dispersed, and the golden sunlight illuminated half of the sky in the distance.

In the Q3 stage, the driving lines on the track became more obvious, and the track conditions also improved to a certain extent.

At the same time, Qin Miao also gradually became familiar with the driving experience of the Sochi track in rainy conditions.

So the speed is much faster than the team estimated.

But at the beginning of Q3, everyone was still running on semi-weather tires.

Qin Miao wanted to change to dry tires, but the team persuaded him not to do so.

Reyes held a tablet next to Qin Miao's car and said: "The analysis department believes that the water on the track has not completely dried out, and the water has gathered again during the Q2 pause. If you really want When changing to dry tires, our suggestion is to first run an effective lap time on semi-wet tires before proceeding.”

After thinking for a while, Qin Miao finally chose to follow the team's advice and left the pit area with semi-wet tires.And I ran the first flying lap of Q3 using semi-weather tires.

The final time was 1 minute 44 seconds 8, 0.8 seconds slower than his teammate Hamilton.

However, Qin Miao had just crossed the line and before he communicated with his team that he was ready to pit, something suddenly changed on the track.

Under the unexpected gaze of everyone, Russell entered the pit area first and changed into soft tires.

Now it's better. The team that was still running qualifying on semi-wet tires on the track can no longer sit still.

Under the influence of the catfish effect provided by Russell, Qin Miao didn't need to take the initiative to mention it. The team took the initiative to call Qin Miao back.

But at this moment, Qin Miao had just completed the first flying lap of Q3, which was far away from the entrance of the pit area, and it was only 6 minutes before the end of the race.

The Sochi track is the longest track of the season. It takes time to run back, time to change tires, and time to go out for a lap after changing tires.

It rained again today, and the temperature on the track was not high, only 15℃.

The normal operating temperature of soft tires is generally around 90-110°C.

Under such track conditions and track temperatures, it is very difficult for soft tires to heat up.

You can't twist left and right to warm up the tires.

Otherwise, the water on both sides of the driving lane will tell you why there are three spots of water next to the word "slip" and how expensive it is to repair an F1 car.

Therefore, one exit lap may not be enough to raise the tire temperature to the appropriate level, and a warm-up lap will be needed.

But the problem now is that there are only more than six minutes left before Q3 stops the clock. Hamilton's fastest flying lap also took 1 minute and 44 seconds. 5 minutes is simply not enough time for Qin Miao to raise the soft tire temperature to appropriate degree.

So Qin Miao finally only had one chance to fly.

Except for the drivers behind Russell, the rhythm of the drivers in front of Russell was all disrupted by his pit stop.

And here, directly in front of Russell is Qin Miao.

Qin Miao even maliciously speculated that Russell's sudden pit stop was probably a deliberate attempt to retaliate against him.

He purposely asked the Williams crew to release Russell from behind him.

But no matter what, Qin Miao still had to fight for it in the last lap of Q3, so he said to the team: "Box." After that, Qin Miao completed his return lap with the attitude of running in qualifying.

Then we went to the P room of the team, put on the soft tires and rushed out.

The rhythm of changing tires is the same as changing tires at the pit stop during the race. If there is a time counter in the lower right corner, you will find that Qin Miao only changed tires in 2.0 seconds this time.

After all, in addition to Qin Miao, the staff of Mercedes-Benz also know that the next time is very important for Qin Miao. In addition, Monza cheated Qin Miao once, and all the technicians of Mercedes-Benz helped Qin Miao change the tires this time. They are all in a state of going all out.

It is worth mentioning that Hamilton had already come once before Qin Miao came in to change the tire.

However, Hamilton's tire change took a long time because the entrance to the pit lane in Sochi was not wide. Hamilton came in a little too fast and skidded a little at the entrance of the pit lane. His left front nose directly hit the pit entrance. On top of the parapet.

This blow was not light, and the left front wing of Hamilton's car was directly broken.

The collision directly hit a Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan.

The good news is that Hamilton's suspension was not affected by the impact.

But everyone who was changing tires did not expect Hamilton to break his front nose when he pitted to change tires, so they had no preparation in advance.

They discovered damage to the front nose of Hamilton's car after Hamilton's car was parked in the maintenance position.

The staff responsible for replacing the front wing hurriedly removed Hamilton's broken front wing, then hugged the damaged front wing and trotted all the way into the team's P room.

It took at least half a minute before he trotted out of the P room holding a brand new front nose.

And with this delay, Hamilton didn't have enough time.

On the other side, while Hamilton was changing tires, Russell had already started his first flying lap.

But as mentioned before, under such track conditions, the temperature of the tires cannot rise.

After one exit lap, you have to go on to the next warm-up lap.

It can be seen from the results of Russell, who has already started the flying lap. After switching to soft tires, the first time period of his first flying lap was 1 seconds slower than the time he ran on wet tires.

But when he started his second flying lap, the soft tires reached the appropriate operating temperature, and his speed immediately improved.

In the first time period, Russell was 0.5 seconds faster than his own time on semi-wet tires.

And all the drivers who ran an extra lap, the last flight lap before the end of the game, the results were much faster than their original results, on average more than one second.

Sainz on the other side even went purple in the second timing period. Just one second timing period was 1.2 seconds faster than Hamilton's second timing period.

On the other side, when Qin Miao started his first flying lap, there was still one minute left before the end of the game.

One minute may seem like a long time, but this time is not enough for Qin Miao to raise the temperature of his tires after completing this lap and run another flying lap.

So it can be said that Qin Miao didn't even complete the last flying lap.

The same goes for Hamilton on the other side. When the Q3 countdown stopped, he was only two corners away from crossing the finish line again.

In the end, the driver who won the pole position for this race was McLaren driver Norris.

Norris was also one of the players doing laps behind Russell. His pole position can only be said to be his luck, and he also seized the opportunity.

Different from the two landlubbers of the two major teams, Qin Miao and Perez.

From Spa before to Sochi today, Norris has proven to everyone his ability to adapt to rainy weather.

In the final Q3 stage of qualifying, neither Mercedes driver's results were very satisfactory.

After qualifying, Qin Miao's TR was eerily quiet.

Qin Miao didn't speak, and no one in the convoy spoke.

Everyone was silent for a while.

(End of this chapter)