How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 274 Chapter 277: Sochi Main Game

The moment the five red lights went out, Qin Miao suddenly stepped on the accelerator of his car.

The other cars also ejected and started immediately.

Qin Miao's starting speed was slightly slower than Hamilton's. After the car speed increased, it was obvious that Qin Miao was pulled away by Hamilton.

At the same time, the leader behind Qin Miao started very fast, and soon reached a position alongside Qin Miao after starting.

And all the way to the T1 false turn, Brother Tou relied on the fact that he lost less traction by walking on the outside line. He was slightly more than half the car body of Qin Miao on the outside line, and as he accelerated, the gap was narrowed. Got bigger and bigger.

After passing the false bend in T1, all cars squeezed into T2 immediately.

At this time, Qin Miao, who was on the inside line, had a slight advantage. The leader, who had passed almost half the car to the side of Qin Miao, lost all advantage due to Qin Miao's late braking operation, and wheel-aligned with Qin Miao. The wheel entered the apex of T2.

In fact, the absolute speed of Brother Tou was faster than that of Qin Miao due to that perfect start. However, because there were Hamilton and Ricciardo in front of Brother Tou, in order to prevent the collision, Brother Tou also relaxed a little on the accelerator. That's why he didn't overtake Qin Miao directly.

When crossing T2, Tou Ge stuck to the right side of Qin Miao's car and did not put excessive pressure on Qin Miao. Moreover, T2 in Sochi is still relatively wide.

So even though the two were very close to each other, there was no collision.

After exiting T2, Qin Miao was still in a wheel-to-wheel situation with Tou Ge.

Next up is T3.

T3 is a long left turn. Although it is a long turn, it is also a false turn. After entering the turn, you can use full throttle until the braking point.

The engine power of Qin Miao's car is obviously stronger than that of Alonso on the inside.

So after arriving at this long bend, Qin Miao began to gradually surpass Alonso beside him.

Full throttle all the way to T4.

Another late brake, this time Qin Miao completely surpassed Alonso before entering the corner and kept his position.

However, the chaotic situation on the field did not improve at this time. It was not until after the first lap that the situation on the field became slightly clearer.

After the start, Sainz, who was second, passed Norris, who was first, and Russell retained his starting position.

Ricciardo passed Hamilton and moved into fourth.

Naturally, the person who appeared in front of Qin Miao changed from Ricciardo to his teammate Hamilton.

Qin Miao was followed by Alonso, Perez, Stroll and Ocon.

In the starting stage, the most surprising driver was actually Leclerc who started at the end of the team.

This time he started directly from 19th to 13th, a total of 6 places, which is incredible.

As for Sainz overtaking Norris in front of him, this was entirely because the disadvantage of starting from pole position was too great.

On the Sochi track, from the start to the braking point of T2, there is no need to slow down on the one kilometer long straight in between.

Although Sainz's start was not as good as Norris's, or even as good as Russell's, after starting, Sainz sucked into the wake of Norris in front of him and overtook him before the braking point of T2.

At that time, Norris focused most of his attention on blocking Hamilton, and did not pay much attention to Sainz behind him, so Sainz stole the chicken.

Although there was some chaos, the good news is that there were no traffic accidents in the starting stage. It was just that some drivers ran into the escape area of ​​T2. Everyone completed the first lap completely.

From the second lap, everyone started driving the car normally.

At the beginning of the race, no one found a good opportunity to start attacking the car in front.

What made Qin Miao and Hamilton a little anxious was that as the game progressed, Russell's speed gradually failed to keep up with Sainz and Norris ahead.

By the time the race reached the fourth lap, the gap between Russell and Norris in front of him was 5.9 seconds.

Russell was not as fast as the riders in the rear group, so on the third lap after the start, there was a DRS small high-speed train behind him.

The unlucky ones in this DRS small high-speed train are: Ricciardo, Hamilton, Qin Miao and Alonso.

And as time went by, Perez gradually caught up behind him.

Although Qin Miao boasted of his strong offensive ability and the strength of the Mercedes-Benz car, even Qin Miao could not find a good overtaking opportunity when he was trapped in the DRS train.

Hamilton in front of Qin Miao also encountered the same situation as Qin Miao.

On the 7th lap, the DRS train behind him had turned into six cars, and the gap between Russell and Norris in front of him had reached 8 seconds.

And if we continue running in this manner, the second group and the third group on the track will be connected together.

At this moment, Qin Miao, who was taking care of his miscarriage like his teammate Hamilton, was a little bored.

Because Russell was blocking him in front, Ricciardo couldn't find a good chance to pass Russell.

All Qin Miao could see at this time was the unchanging butt of the McLaren racing car.

At this time, Qin Miao, who was a little bored, began to think, if he entered the station and directly changed to white tires, would there be any room for maneuver?
After thinking of this, Qin Miao subconsciously glanced at the rearview mirror.

The row in the rearview mirror is basically full of cars. If you choose to pit at this time, there will indeed be a window for Qin Miao to do lap times after he comes out.

But this window period shouldn't be too big. It's probably a loss to pit at this time. It's better to wait for the team to give you advice.

On lap 10, Norris finally caught up in the DRS area behind Sainz in front of him.

It is worth mentioning that the time gap between Russell and Norris, which was already 8 seconds, quickly narrowed to 7 seconds after the two started fighting.

In fact, according to the commentators, the most correct thing for Sainz and Norris in front at this time is to take advantage of Russell behind them to help them block Qin Miao and Hamilton, drivers who threaten their positions.

The two of them did not attack each other, did not put pressure on each other, and tried to widen the distance between them and the driver behind them as much as possible.

Wait until the gap between them and the drivers behind is considerable enough to start fighting for the championship of this race.

Unfortunately, judging from Norris's actions, he didn't want to wait any longer. It's also possible that he thought 8 seconds was enough.

At the same time, Verstappen, who started from the back of the team, had already caught up with No. 13.

He took advantage of the gap between Leclerc and Leclerc's old teammate Vettel and passed Leclerc.

Qin Miao, who also started from the back of the team, knew that it was easier to overtake the riders at the back, but as time went by, the higher the ranking, the more difficult it was to overtake them.On the 12th lap, there was a slight change in the DRS train that was originally relatively stable.

Perez behind him overtook Alonso in front of him.

And as time went by, Alonso gradually began to be unable to keep up with the DRS train in front of him.

So the DRS train, which originally had 6 people, became 12 people on the 5th lap.

Qin Miao, who was very bored, entered into a state of integration between man and car while keeping the tires on, and Qin Miao's driving instinct took over half of the control of the car.

Strictly speaking, Qin Miao's current state is a bit like fishing at work.

On lap 13, Norris finally overtook Sainz in front of him.

It mainly depends on the full release of DRS and ERS.

The overtaking position is the DRS area between T10 and T13.

There is nothing to say about this overtaking. It was a standard outside overtaking accomplished with DRS, and Sainz had nothing to do about it.

Although I still hope that Qin Miao will have a chance to continue to win the championship in this game, Norris has such a huge advantage at this time. Brother Bing, who is not too worried about the excitement, still smiled and said:

"Norris! He finally surpassed Sainz. If Norris continues to run in his current state, he will really win the championship!"

"Norris is very likely to create his own history in this game. Norris's first Pole to win in his career is today!" Fei Ge also nodded in agreement.

Zhou Haoran took a look at the weather cloud map of Sochi, Russia at this time, and there were no rain clouds floating over.

On lap 14, Russell finally sounded the horn to pit for tire changes.

After pitting, Russell changed from yellow to white, and fell directly behind Gasly after coming out.

Without Russell blocking him, Ricciardo's speed did not change much. Even without DRS, Ricciardo's speed was slightly slower.

Originally, Qin Miao was excited for a while after seeing Russell entering the station. He was finally getting rid of the DRS train. Unfortunately, it turned out that the DRS train still had to run. The only difference was that it had a different locomotive.

On lap 15, Sainz also chose to pit for tire changes after being overtaken by Norris.

Originally, Sainz was not as fast as Norris. After being overtaken, he was quickly pulled away by Norris, so it was also the right choice to stop and change tires at this time.

After Sainz came out, he was naturally in front of Russell.

During this period, Qin Miao was also asked by the team whether he wanted to pit for tire changes.

Hamilton in front of Qin Miao still maintained his own rhythm. Qin Miao tried twice, but was unable to pose any threat to Hamilton's position.

Even when Qin Miao was recharging his battery, Perez behind him would put pressure on Qin Miao.

After thinking about it, Qin Miao chose to pit and put on hard tires on the 17th lap.

In fact, Qin Miao's medium tire speed was still very fast, but with Qin Miao trapped in the DRS train, Qin Miao's tire advantage could not be used at all.

Even because the team prepared two more laps of fuel for Qin Miao to sprint, the remaining fuel for these two laps not only did not become Qin Miao's confidence, but instead became Qin Miao's burden.

So at this time, Qin Miao felt that it was unnecessary to continue to be trapped here, and he should actively seek changes.

The team also considered Qin Miao's ability to protect tires, so someone from the strategy team made a suggestion to replace Qin Miao with soft tires.

However, this suggestion was not adopted in the end. After all, there were still 33 laps to go before the end of the race. Even if it was known that it would rain during the period when the race was about to end, the rain would not be too heavy. Even if the rain was heavy enough to require a pit stop, Qin Miao's soft tires couldn't last so long.

Therefore, changing to hard tires is Qin Miao's best choice at this time.

After changing to hard tires in 2.4 seconds, Qin Miao happened to fall 1 second ahead of Russell.

Everyone knows that no matter how strong the performance of a car coming out of the pit area is, its tires have not reached the appropriate operating temperature at this time.

The exit of the maintenance area of ​​the Sochi track is in the middle and rear section of the start straight.

So even though Qin Miao had a one-second advantage over Russell, Qin Miao's position was still taken over by Russell.

At that time, Russell saw that after Qin Miao came out of the maintenance area, he did not rely on his speed to directly overtake Qin Miao from the outside. Instead, he came behind Qin Miao, sucked in the wake, and then overtook Qin Miao from the outside. .

After Russell took a bite of Qin Miao's wake, Qin Miao, whose exit speed was not as fast as Russell's, was naturally overtaken by Russell before the braking point of T2.

But Qin Miao was not pulled away.

After exiting T2, he has been following Russell 1.5 seconds behind Russell.

After following Russell for a lap, Qin Miao's tire temperature also increased, and naturally his speed also increased.

Moreover, both Qin Miao and Russell were using hard tires. Qin Miao's hard tires had only run one lap. Naturally, Qin Miao's tires had slightly stronger grip than Russell's.

On the 21st lap, Qin Miao was still in the same position. During the period when he left T1, he sucked in a big mouthful of wake from Russell, plus the blessing of DRS.

Although Qin Miao was preparing to tap inside, Russell immediately changed his line to the inside, preparing to compress Qin Miao's offensive line.

Qin Miao had no choice but to change lanes in the same direction as Russell. Qin Miao was directly pushed to the edge of the track by Russell.

But Qin Miao's speed was still too fast, and after reaching the edge of the track, he did not avoid Russell.

Russell also knew the rules. Although he was a little unwilling, he did not squeeze Qin Miao directly into the wall.

In the end, just like the way Russell overtook Qin Miao, Qin Miao completed his overtaking of Russell before the braking point of T2.

It is worth mentioning that because the drivers were pitting one after another, Verstappen's position at this time had already reached fifth.

Moreover, Verstappen still uses hard tires, which means that Verstappen still has a lot of tire spare at this time, and he can definitely run longer.

Now the comparison is about stability and speed over long distances.

And at this time, Hamilton's speed was still increasing. Hamilton used a set of medium tires that ran for 23 laps and still set his fastest lap on the track.

At this time, there was no car in front of Hamilton. Norris, who was in first place, was 12 seconds behind Hamilton, which was squeezed out by Ricciardo's little train.

In other words, Hamilton can always run at his most comfortable pace without any burden.

(End of this chapter)