How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 299 Chapter 302: The sprint qualifying championship won in advance (6K, 214 more updates)

After measuring behind the rear wing of Hamilton's car, Verstappen also moved around behind the rear wing of Qin Miao's car.

Maybe it's because of Qin Miao's training settings, or maybe it's because Qin Miao didn't beat Verstappen in the qualifying stage. Verstappen just took a look at Qin Miao's car and didn't look like him. He specifically reached out to check Hamilton's car.

Because when Verstappen was checking Hamilton's car, Qin Miao and Hamilton had just gotten off the car, and neither of them noticed Verstappen's movement.

However, after the post-race interview was over and everyone had finished their post-race work and returned to the hotel, the FIA ​​suddenly issued an investigation announcement.

The FIA ​​began investigating the violation of the rear wing of Hamilton's car. At the same time, Verstappen was fined 38 euros (about [-] yuan at the real-time exchange rate) for touching other drivers' rear wings after the race.

Qin Miao was shocked when he heard the news, not because Verstappen was fined, but because he was surprised as to why Hamilton violated the rules.

After all, both he and Hamilton use the same rear wing.

Could it be because of the new rear wing that the team just installed on the car? I won't be punished because of the new rear wing, right?
Of course, Qin Miao also began to worry about being implicated.

However, in the end, the team did not call to inform Qin Miao, and Qin Miao's name was not mentioned in the announcement issued by the FIA.

What Qin Miao didn't know was that before this announcement was issued, the FIA ​​had already begun conducting extremely strict vehicle inspections on Hamilton's car.

The race meeting soon discovered that when Hamilton's car's rear wing was in the DRS state, the distance between the DRS wings exceeded 85 mm.

Although the distance is only 85.2 mm, a violation is a violation, and if it exceeds 0.2 mm, it is also exceeded.

Even because Qin Miao and Hamilton used the same rear wing, after discovering that Hamilton's rear wing violated the regulations, the FIA ​​urgently took out the test data of Qin Miao's car and conducted a review, but the final result showed that Qin Miao's rear wing violated the regulations. Miao's car did not violate this aspect. After DRS was turned on, the distance was exactly 85 mm.

Therefore, Qin Miao was not punished this time.

Although there is already evidence, the FIA ​​will still hold a hearing on Saturday morning, that is, tomorrow morning.

After the hearing, if it is determined that Hamilton indeed violated the rules, then Hamilton's results in the qualifying stage will be cancelled.

This means that Hamilton will be punished to start at the end of the team during Saturday's sprint qualifying session.

This is undoubtedly good news for Qin Miao and Verstappen.

On Saturday morning, when Qin Miao woke up, he found Qiu Meng sleeping next to him. This girl had taken a flight at midnight last night, and it was already very late when she arrived in Brazil.

Qin Miao goes to bed early every day because of his career, so he doesn't have time to pick her up.

So after landing, this girl came to Qin Miao's hotel by herself.

Qin Miao's good mood naturally starts when he sees his wife.

Without disturbing Qiu Meng, she got up gently, washed up and went to the paddock.

Although there is Hamilton's hearing this morning, Qin Miao is not prepared to attend.

The FIA ​​has already found the evidence, and Barber and Qin Miao analyzed it together last night.

Verstappen should know something, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten out of the car after the race with a very clear purpose to observe the rear wings of his and Hamilton's cars.

And Verstappen is a notoriously ruthless track machine.

So when on the track, apart from paying attention to his own driving, Verstappen could not distract himself from looking at Hamilton's rear wing.

It was probably the Red Bull Racing team that discovered there was a problem with the rear wing of Hamilton's car and told Verstappen.

After qualifying, Verstappen discovered that he had not outrun Hamilton. After qualifying, Verstappen, who was a little dissatisfied, naturally wanted to see the difference between the rear wing of his car and that of Hamilton's car.

Then Verstappen was fined 5 euros.

Although this little money is nothing to Verstappen.

But Verstappen didn't find anything, and the 0.2 mm DRS wing spacing cannot be measured by hand.

Now that Red Bull already knows that there is a problem with the rear wing of Mercedes' car, it is absolutely impossible for Red Bull to let Mercedes pass so easily based on Red Bull's urine habit and the competitive relationship between the two teams at this time.

So while the FIA ​​is reviewing Hamilton's car, Red Bull will definitely put pressure on the FIA. They will use the evidence on hand to make the situation develop against Mercedes.

Therefore, it is inevitable that Hamilton will be punished at the hearing. Since everyone already knows the result, Qin Miao naturally has no need to go to the scene to waste time and free time.

However, when they came to the paddock for a routine pre-race interview, the reporter interviewing Qin Miao still asked Qin Miao questions about Hamilton.

"Your teammate Hamilton is currently under investigation by the FIA ​​due to illegal operation of the rear wing. Do you have any opinion on this?"

After hearing the reporter's question, Qin Miao rolled her eyes in her heart.

But after all, he was in the paddock, and his every move was captured by countless cameras, just like the video recorded by the audience when Verstappen touched Hamilton's rear wing yesterday.

If he showed impatience or acted unfriendly to reporters during an interview, Qin Miao would be on the headlines of major European and American newspapers and television tomorrow.

So after thinking expressionlessly for a while, Qin Miao replied confusedly: "Actually, I don't know much about this. I just hope that this matter will not affect Hamilton's state of play today..."

In fact, normally, after the reporter asked this question, he could ask up to two more questions, but Qin Miao didn't give the other party any chance.

After answering a question, he turned around and left.

This reporter was very aggressive when he came up. Qin Miao was also worried that the other party would delve into questions that he didn't want to answer, so after answering one question, Qin Miao returned to the motorcade.

Before the start of the second practice, Hamilton finally returned.

After Hamilton came back, Qin Miao also learned about the FIA's punishment for this matter.

Hamilton's results in the qualifying stage were cancelled, which means that in today's sprint qualifying stage, Hamilton will start from the back of the team.

Although no one at the Mercedes-Benz team was surprised by this penalty, and they were even mentally prepared yesterday, but after the penalty came down, the atmosphere in the Mercedes-Benz team inevitably became a bit depressing. .

However, no matter what the atmosphere inside the team was like, the second practice still started normally.

Different from the first practice, all the teams in the second practice are helping the drivers find long-distance car tuning. After all, what follows is a 24-lap sprint qualifying race.

After the sprint race, there is still a race to be run, and the race also requires this set of training.

However, it is worth mentioning that because he was punished to start at the end of the team during sprint qualifying, Mercedes looked at it and gave Hamilton a brand new internal combustion engine.

This can be regarded as a blessing in disguise. This time, switching to an internal combustion engine will only result in a penalty of five positions in the race.

Qin Miao, who was sitting in his seat looking at the data, felt a little bit pained when he saw that Hamilton's car was equipped with a new internal combustion engine.

Qin Miao, who just got a new internal combustion engine half a month ago, knows how much improvement a new internal combustion engine can bring to Mercedes-Benz's racing car.

Presumably Hamilton's speed will not be too slow in this sprint race.

The only question now is how many places Hamilton can finish chasing.

Soon, the second practice ended.

Because all drivers are running long distances, whether it is Verstappen, Hamilton or Qin Miao, their speed is not particularly fast.

Therefore, it was Alonso who took first place in the second practice.

However, unlike the first practice where everyone needs to prepare for qualifying, in the second practice everyone is looking for tuning settings, so the results are of no reference and are just for fun.

Soon, as all the cars returned to the team's P room again, and after a review of the data from the second practice test, the time came for the sprint qualifying session, which was originally a qualifying session.

The format of this race is the same as previous sprint qualifying races, with only the top three drivers receiving points.

As for the drivers outside the top three, the ranking in this race only determines the starting order for tomorrow's race.

Therefore, in this sprint stage, Qin Miao’s preparation time before starting the race, whether it was Toto, Franchi or Reyes, the instructions given to Qin Miao before the race were to make him drive the car stably and safely in this race. Take it back.

But Hamilton has a different style. His training is extremely radical, and the fuel load given to Hamilton by the team is also higher than normal.

It is clear that Hamilton should use this new internal combustion engine to chase the drivers in front, use the new internal combustion engine as much as possible to obtain a better ranking, and obtain a good ranking for himself in the main race.

The pre-race preparations for sprint qualifying are no different from the race. Qin Miao is waiting in the second position.

Although the team asked Qin Miao to seek stability in this race, Qin Miao still had some thoughts of his own.

Since the team told itself to seek stability, there is a high probability that Red Bull also told Verstappen to seek stability.

Qin Miao feels that he can make a time difference at this stage. If his start is stable enough, or even if his starting speed is similar to Verstappen, he can rely on the advantage of the soft tires and get the first place directly after starting. One.

As long as he can get first place after the start, Qin Miao will be confident that he can lock down Verstappen in the next 24 laps of sprint qualifying.

And Qin Miao is confident that he can slow down all other drivers and cause certain difficulties for Hamilton's overtaking behind him.

Of course, Qin Miao didn't tell anyone about this idea.

It's one thing to compete with your teammates behind the scenes, but you can't talk about it openly.

Of course, disgusting Hamilton was just incidental. Qin Miao mainly needed to defend Verstappen's offense in this game.

However, this is just Qin Miao's idea at the moment. If it is really implemented, it will depend on Qin Miao's performance in the initial stage and whether Verstappen will give him this opportunity. Ten minutes later, the staff on the track received a notice from the competition and evacuated the track.

The soft tires used by Qin Miao were also revealed.

Europeans and Americans like to put labels on people, and now Qin Miao's two most eye-catching labels after running in Mexico last week are defense and tire protection.

Therefore, no one would worry about Qin Miao's tire condition when he started on soft tires.

In the last corner of the tire warm-up lap, Verstappen was driving slowly and leisurely in front. Qin Miao was four cars behind Verstappen and was driving even slower than Verstappen.

This was Qin Miao's intention to cool down the tires of Verstappen's car faster.

Car press?My brother's pressure is even more extreme than yours.

Because there is a prescribed speed for the tire warm-up circle, even though Qin Miao pushed the car to the limit, it was still not less than the prescribed speed.

Verstappen also felt sick after seeing the distance between Qin Miao and himself, but Qin Miao made a trick after he couldn't exit the corner. Qin Miao deliberately got stuck in Verstappen's entry into the corner and needed to observe the race. Slowed down on the road.

In the end, Verstappen maintained a constant speed and parked his car on the grid.

It took Qin Miao more than three seconds to stop where he belonged.

In these three seconds, when Qin Miao stopped, the temperature of his soft tires was about 3° higher than that of Verstappen.

Although both Mercedes and Red Bull heated up the track at their starting positions, this 3° temperature can still play a decisive role in a start.

The only consolation for Verstappen is that Verstappen uses medium tires. The medium tires cool down slightly slower than the soft tires used by Qin Miao.

Half a minute later, the riders behind the two people parked their cars at their spots one after another.

After everyone's cars were parked, the medical vehicle was in place behind the track, the green flag was waved, and the race was about to begin.

……

Five red lights come on and off, and the race begins!
Qin Miao's starting reaction speed was similar to that of Verstappen. Both of them responded about 0.2 seconds after the red light went out, and then started to accelerate.

At the critical moment, Qin Miao's soft tire advantage came to the fore.

Qin Miao, who uses soft tires, can apply more fuel after starting than Verstappen, who uses medium tires. More oil will bring more output to the engine, and Qin Miao's acceleration will be faster.

Moreover, the No. 2 starting position at Interlagos was on the inside, so after arriving all the way to T1, Qin Miao took the lead on the inside of Verstappen, but Verstappen had nothing to do.

It can be seen that after Qin Miao stood on his inside line, Verstappen had no intention of giving up his position and chose to enter T1 wheel-to-wheel with Qin Miao.

Qin Miao still remembered the instructions given to him by the team before the race, so when Verstappen forced his way over, Qin Miao did not compress Verstappen's car's entry line. Otherwise, according to Qin Miao's urine, he would definitely Verstappen was squeezed out of the track.

Instead of leaving enough cornering position for Verstappen like now.

It was all downhill until T3, so in addition to observing Verstappen's position, Qin Miao also had to pay attention to controlling his brakes. After all, if he stepped a little too hard when going downhill, the tires might lock up.

However, after T2, Qin Miao discovered that Verstappen did not shorten the distance with him just because T2 was his inside line. After T3, Verstappen was directly thrown behind Qin Miao. .

Qin Miao was not surprised by this. He used soft tires and Verstappen used medium tires. In continuous corners, it is natural that soft tires are faster than medium tires.

After arriving here, Qin Miao's game is over.

Although overtaking at the Interlagos circuit in Brazil is relatively easy, Qin Miao feels that based on his personal ability, it is not difficult to curb the overtaking of drivers behind him.

Moreover, Qin Miao drove away from Verstappen for more than one second on the second lap, directly opening a DRS distance. Verstappen's threat to Qin Miao was also greatly reduced.

Verstappen really wants to keep up with Qin Miao. After all, Qin Miao is only 8 points more than Verstappen in the overall standings.

Although the three points awarded in this sprint qualifying session are not many, if you can win the championship, it can also relieve the pressure on Verstappen to a certain extent.

Due to the ebb and flow of the situation, Qin Miao and Mei Ben will definitely be affected to a certain extent by the defeat in today's game.

However, Qin Miao’s speed on the soft tire was still a bit too fast.

If Qin Miao were replaced by another driver, even if the opponent also had a points conflict with him, Verstappen would not feel as powerless as he does now.

After all, in a [-]-kilometer sprint race, it is difficult for other drivers to complete the race on soft tires. Even if they finish the race, their speed will drop drastically in the later stages.

But Qin Miao is different. The tires on his car seem to be enchanted and can always be used for many more laps than other drivers.

So Verstappen has no doubt that Qin Miao can run the entire sprint qualifying session with his set of soft tires, and Verstappen also knows that the wear of Qin Miao's tires will not be too serious after the sprint qualifying session.

Not long after Qin Miao crossed the line on the second lap, good news came from behind.

Sainz, who started fifth, had an extremely bright start in this race and rose to third after the start.

Then at the end of the first lap, Sainz was 0.4 seconds behind Verstappen.

After braking late in the T1 braking zone, Gasly easily overtook Verstappen.

Just when everyone was surprised why a Ferrari could kill Red Bull so easily.

Just halfway through the second lap, Verstappen's TR on Red Bull's side rang: "This stupid gear synchronization setting keeps reporting errors!"

"Received MAX, we will start to solve it, don't worry."

It turned out that Verstappen had a gear problem when he was beaten by Ferrari this time.

This is not surprising.

At this time, Hamilton, who started from the rear of the team, had already caught up with No. 16.

Although DRS has not been turned on at this time, the exaggerated tail speed and acceleration ability of Mercedes' new internal combustion engine allow Hamilton to use the tail speed to easily overtake the driver in front of him in T1 every time.

On the third lap, Hamilton caught up with No. 14.

On the fourth lap, Verstappen regained his position. It seemed that the team had remotely repaired his gear problem.

On the sixth lap, Hamilton caught up with No. 12.

Relying on pure tail speed, Hamilton was able to kill seven in and seven out among the Earth group cars that did not dare to make too much defensive moves.

At this time, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him remained at 1.8 seconds, and he began to protect the tires.

If he cheats like Qin Miao, he has no way to guarantee that he can run at a competitive speed with soft tires throughout the race without tire protection.

On the eighth lap, Hamilton passed Alonso and reached No. 11.

Alonso actually wants to give Hamilton a little more intensity like this year's Hungaroring, but Interlagos is not the Hungaroring, and overtaking is much less difficult than the Hungaroring.

So Alonso didn't hold on for a lap.

At this time, the distance between the driver in front and the driver has gradually widened, and the further back, the stronger the performance of the car, and Hamilton's overtaking speed inevitably begins to slow down.

On the tenth lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him remained at 1.5 seconds.

This is not a time gap caused by Verstappen catching up, but a gap deliberately maintained by Qin Miao, because this time gap allows Qin Miao to allow the turbulence of his car to have the greatest impact on Verstappen, but the straight-line position Just enough to use the advantage of running out of corners to fill up the time gap that Verstappen had to catch up.

To put it bluntly, Qin Miao can lock down Verstappen within this time gap.

It wasn't that Qin Miao wanted to take risks, but that after only ten laps, the time gap between Verstappen and Sainz behind him had reached 5 seconds.

It can be said that it was not Qin Miao who did not want to push the car, but Verstappen who was pushing Qin Miao forward, making him unable to push the car.

Although the plan to use the DRS train to stop Hamilton went bankrupt due to Verstappen's obstruction, Qin Miao is still confident of holding on to Verstappen's attack.

On Lap No. 12, although Hamilton caught up with Ricciardo in front of him, he was briefly trapped in the DRS train composed of Vettel and Ricciardo.

Qin Miao, who has been tortured several times by the DRS train this season, knows how uncomfortable it is.

If it were Qin Miao who came here, he might not be able to think of any good solution for this DRS train.

After all, Hamilton is Hamilton, and he still has more experience than Qin Miao.

At several corners that threatened Ricciardo, Hamilton forced his car to appear in Ricciardo's rearview mirror, putting pressure on Ricciardo.

Then came the starting straight. After turning on DRS, I sucked in Ricciardo's wake, and finally completed a complete overtake of Ricciardo before the braking point on the starting straight.

After getting rid of Ricciardo, the front is Vettel.

On lap No. 15, Hamilton passed Vettel.

The same overtaking method, DRS and wake on the straightaway from the start.

Facing Hamilton behind him, Vettel had no power to resist.

At this time, Qin Miao still maintained a distance of 1.5 seconds from Verstappen.

(End of this chapter)