How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 317 320: Dawn of Victory (6K, 1214 more updates)

Next, Verstappen thinks more about defeating Hamilton, at least he has to get second place in this game.

That's why when Qin Miao looked in the rearview mirror, he found that the behavior of the two people in the rearview mirror was particularly weird.

After Qin Miao entered T27, Verstappen discovered that Hamilton still had not surpassed him before the DRS monitoring point, and then he suddenly braked hard.

Verstappen knows that F1 drivers react very quickly, so Verstappen felt that after suddenly seeing his heavy braking, even if Hamilton subjectively did not want to overtake him before the DRS detection point, but You will still choose to swerve to avoid it.

At that time, as long as Hamilton's front end surpasses his own, Verstappen will have fulfilled the team's requirements for him and let Hamilton go.

As for when he later took advantage of Hamilton's accident, or the time when he was cursing in the cockpit of the racing car, he accelerated to overtake Hamilton and regain the position, that was his own skill.

As for the controversy after doing this...

F1 is a place where there are winners and losers. People will only cheer for the birth of a new world champion, but they will not pay attention to what evil things the world champion has done this season.

Even if someone keeps this incident in their mind, as long as the driver keeps winning, no one will talk about it.

As for Hamilton, after discovering Verstappen's actions, Hamilton was still the same as before.

Although he was very anxious after seeing Qin Miao running away, he also knew it.

If he passes the DRS detection point of T27 faster than Verstappen at this time, then after exiting T27, the position returned by Verstappen will have to be taken back by Verstappen.

In that case, he would be delayed even more by Verstappen.

So Hamilton, just like the previous lap, had no choice but to slow down like Verstappen.

Naturally, Hamilton slowed down well, and Verstappen's sudden heavy braking really shocked Hamilton.

But Hamilton did not react quickly to avoid himself as Verstappen expected.

After all, Hamilton was still paying some attention to Qin Miao's car ahead.

Because Hamilton knew that he was faster than Qin Miao in this game, so even though there were not many laps left in the game and Qin Miao was in the lead, Hamilton still felt that he might surpass Qin Miao in this game. To regain the championship that should belong to him.

Therefore, Hamilton was unable to react in time to Verstappen's sudden braking. When turning left, the right nose end plate of Hamilton's car collided with Verstappen's left rear wheel.

Verstappen was also hit by this collision and lost the grip of the rear wheel of the car, but Verstappen was Verstappen after all, and soon a micro-manipulation counterattack stabilized the car that was about to lose control.

But fortunately, the collision was not serious. Hamilton only had his left front end plate broken. The entire front nose was still intact, and the rear wheel of Verstappen's car was not scratched by debris due to this collision. .

Verstappen felt the vibration of the car and heard the sound of carbon fiber breaking, and knew that he had collided with Hamilton. At that time, Verstappen was heartbroken.

This is not because he is worried about losing control of his car, but because he is worried about the penalties imposed on him by the FIA.

But Verstappen thought: If you crash, just crash. Anyway, it can't be worse than the current situation. At least Hamilton has passed...

Thinking of this, Verstappen glanced at his left rearview mirror.

After Hamilton collided with himself, he actually stopped directly on the track, with no intention of crossing the DRS detection point in advance.

Okay, okay, why are you playing like this?

Verstappen saw that Hamilton was not willing to pass him even if he collided with him, so he simply ignored Hamilton and accelerated away.

After seeing this, Hamilton accelerated to keep up with Verstappen.

In fact, this collision was also unexpected by Hamilton.

Therefore, Hamilton's pace when he started again was not particularly good. When he passed the DRS monitoring point, he did not catch Verstappen's wake.

Even when Hamilton regained his racing rhythm, the time gap between him and Verstappen widened to 2 seconds.

This collision once again provoked the conflict between Mercedes and Red Bull that had just been resolved due to the FIA's penalty decision.

After Toto saw this scene, he was so angry that he cursed several words starting with F. Later, he probably felt so angry that he smashed the headphones in his hand on the spot.

After running for several more laps, on lap 42, it was still the same way, in the same position, and Verstappen still did not give up the lane of the track.

His way of giving way was just to slow down on the normal line and give Hamilton the inside lane to overtake.

Hamilton also knew at this time that he could no longer quarrel with Verstappen, because at this time the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen had reached 3.2 seconds.

If he continues to struggle with Verstappen, Hamilton will no longer be able to get involved in the championship position in this game.

So after discovering that Verstappen was slowing down, Hamilton finally chose to overtake Verstappen from the outside at normal speed.

Hamilton's operation played right into Verstappen's hands.

After Hamilton's entire car passed the Red Bull, neither of them had yet reached the braking point of T27.

Then we saw that after Hamilton regained his position, he entered the corner normally from the outside.

Verstappen braked late with his trademark inside kick.

With this late braking, Verstappen passed the DRS monitoring point later than Hamilton and entered the corner faster than Hamilton.

Even at the center of the corner, Verstappen squeezed Hamilton toward the outside, depriving Hamilton of the best exit route.

I paid it back, but not completely.

So after exiting T27 and coming to the start straight, Verstappen came in front of Hamilton again. Verstappen even turned on the DRS of his car after passing the prescribed DRS starting point.

After seeing Verstappen's actions, Zhou Haoran's face was filled with disbelief: "He can't do this, it's a foul!"

"Verstappen can't counterattack immediately after giving back the position!"

Although domestic fans also knew that Hamilton and Qin Miao had a competitive relationship at this time, Hamilton was Qin Miao's teammate after all, so after seeing this scene, domestic audiences felt even more unhappy for Hamilton.

I feel that Verstappen is crazy and would give up his face for the championship.

Then the camera turned, and the live broadcast screen came to the P room of the Mercedes team.

The camera focused on Toto Wolff.

Different from the hysteria in the shot after the collision between Verstappen and Hamilton, Toto Wolff was sitting in his seat with his arms crossed, and was directly angered by Verstappen's actions. Laughed.

On the field, just after arriving at T3 on this lap, the FIA ​​imposed a penalty on Verstappen.

Verstappen was given a five-second penalty.

This five-second penalty was a penalty for Verstappen not returning the position to Hamilton after passing Hamilton through the corner.

But after seeing the penalty result, not only the commentators, Mercedes fans, Hamilton fans, and even some neutral fans couldn't stand it.

Compared to the ridiculous things Verstappen just did on the field, this punishment is indeed a bit too light.

At this time, Toto finally understood that the FIA ​​no longer wanted to hide it. They just didn't want Hamilton to win the unprecedented eighth championship.

They don't want Hamilton to become the first person in F1 history, even if this record will be broken sooner or later.

Toto even felt that they would not have such a big objection to Qin Miao winning this year's driver's championship.

But compared to Qin Miao, they obviously still hope that Verstappen can win the championship.

But on lap 43, it was still the T27 corner.

Hamilton used DRS to catch up with Verstappen in front of him, braked inside before T27, and passed Verstappen.

When exiting the corner, Verstappen wanted to struggle again, trying to regain the position from Hamilton's hands.

But Hamilton was no longer ready to chat with Verstappen. When entering the corner, he used his own line advantage to directly squeeze Verstappen off the track.

After exiting the corner, he finally overtook Verstappen.

Although Verstappen had DRS after coming to the start straight, Verstappen's tires were no longer as good as before. After running for so long, Verstappen's set of medium tires even had less grip. But Hamilton's set of hard tires was too hard.

So even though Verstappen had DRS at this time, Verstappen's speed out of corners was obviously not as fast as Hamilton's, so in the end Hamilton held on to his position.

Ironically, this was not something Verstappen gave up on his own initiative, but because Verstappen's tires had insufficient grip, and Hamilton relied on his own strength to overtake him.

When the race reached the second timing period on lap 44, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen had widened to 2 seconds.

By the time the race came to lap 45, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen had reached 2 seconds.

The 4.3-second time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton has now been shortened to 3.7 seconds. Hamilton chased Qin Miao for 0.5 seconds in one lap, and judging from Hamilton's speed at this time, Hamilton's damaged front nose end plate did not have any impact on Hamilton's speed. He was still very fast.

Next, everyone turned their attention away from Verstappen.

After Hamilton passed Verstappen, it was obvious that Verstappen could no longer keep up with Hamilton's pace. In the last few laps, Verstappen's set of medium tires really couldn't hold up.

And even if Verstappen had no tire problems, didn't he still carry a five-second time penalty?

So strictly speaking, this race has nothing to do with Verstappen. What the audience will mainly watch next is whether Hamilton can catch up with him within the next 5 laps. The speed in front does not seem to be very fast. Qin Miao was too quick.

On lap 46, Hamilton caught up to 3 seconds behind Qin Miao.

On lap 47, Hamilton entered behind Qin Miao for 2.6 seconds. At this time, Hamilton would be affected by the turbulence discharged from the rear of Qin Miao's car, and his pursuit speed would obviously slow down.

48 laps, 2.3 seconds.

49 laps, 1.8 seconds.

At this time, Hamilton was already showing off his strength, but there were still two laps left before the end of the race.

Hamilton was confident that he would enter the DRS area behind Qin Miao before the end of the game, but he knew that he only had one chance to attack Qin Miao, and the possibility of success in this attack was also low.

But if he doesn't try this, he will really only be able to finish in second place in this race. If he wants to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next week, he will have to let Qin Miao not finish in third place. In addition, a championship must be snatched away from Verstappen.

But in that case, everything would be out of control for Hamilton. Winning the final driver's championship no longer depends on the strength of the driver, but who has better luck besides Qin Miao. Not the end result he wanted to see.

Therefore, putting everything on the line, Hamilton did not want to lose at the last moment, let alone Qin Miao, a newcomer who had only entered F1 in his first year.

Even compared to Qin Miao, Hamilton is more willing to lose to Verstappen, because at least losing to Verstappen, he can also hint to the outside world that this is the result of Red Bull's car performance being better than Mercedes'.

But if he loses to Qin Miao, everyone will feel that this is not a problem with Mercedes, but with Hamilton himself.

Qin Miao and Hamilton passed the finish line of the 50th lap one after another. When they came to the last lap, Hamilton had reached the position 0.8 seconds behind Qin Miao and reached the braking point of T1. Hamilton was 0.8 seconds behind Qin Miao. The time difference in seconds was reduced to 0.5 seconds.

But this time gap is still not enough for Hamilton to attack Qin Miao from this position.

In the following first and second timing sections, from T1 to T2, Qin Miao, who is in the lead, has an advantage. There are no corners where overtaking is possible.

When they reached the DRS monitoring point behind T17, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton behind him came to 1.4 seconds.

So after passing this DRS monitoring point, Hamilton did not get the DRS of Qin Miao Racing.

But the following section is all a straightaway after all. Therefore, although Hamilton does not have DRS, he still has Qin Miao's wake.

So after running in the DRS zone from T19 to T22, Hamilton shortened the time gap between the two from 1.4 seconds to 1.1 seconds.

There was no possibility of overtaking in the next three corners, so Qin Miao ran the race normally.

Then there is another DRS area from T24 to T27.

At this time, Hamilton still does not have DRS.

But at this time, Hamilton used this long straight to catch up to the position 0.7 seconds behind Qin Miao.

After passing the DRS detection point that caused Hamilton and Verstappen to argue endlessly on the track, Hamilton finally got the DRS of Qin Miao's car for the first time in this race.

After exiting the corner, Qin Miao was faster than Hamilton. Before the DRS activation point after exiting the corner, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton was 0.7 seconds.

But as he entered the DRS zone, Hamilton began to shorten the time gap with Qin Miao at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At this time, both Qin Miao and Hamilton saw the checkered flag waving at the edge of the track, as well as the Mercedes team staff who poked their heads out from the protective wall beside the track and cheered to the two Mercedes drivers. .

But the two drivers who only saw this with their peripheral vision did not attract their attention. At this time, both of them wanted to step on the accelerator pedal directly into the fuel tank of their car.

Both of them were making a final sprint at this time.

At this time, someone will be confused.

Qin Miao is obviously not much slower than Hamilton. Why can Hamilton push Qin Miao, who has such a big lead, to this point in five laps?

This has to mention Qin Miao's sudden sneak attack when the two drivers Hamilton and Verstappen were fighting.

At that time, Qin Miao almost drained the power from his racing battery in one go.

But that was not the first time Qin Miao used that mode in this game. In fact, Qin Miao used it twice.

The first time was when he was close to Hamilton, and the other time was when Verstappen was exchanging positions with Hamilton. Qin Miao drove this mode and passed the two people from the inside.

After doing this, Qin Miao discovered somewhat sadly that there seemed to be something wrong with his racing engine.

Qin Miao was naturally the first to respond to the team's engineer.

Even Qin Miao was so anxious that he was sweating profusely.

After a simple inspection and data analysis, the team later discovered that there was a problem with the battery of Qin Miao's racing car.

At this time, the battery of Qin Miao's racing car can continue to discharge, but MGU-K and MGU-H cannot continue to charge the battery.

Therefore, the battery of Qin Miao's racing car was scrapped in disguise.

Logically speaking, the most important thing to do at this time is to withdraw from the game as soon as possible.

But after finally getting this position, Qin Miao was unwilling to quit at any cost, and Frankie and the others did not want Qin Miao to withdraw hastily.

Therefore, after Qin Miao discovered the fault of the racing car, they immediately began to analyze and detect the fault of the racing car.

The final result was a mixed bag.

It should be that Qin Miao overused the car's battery twice, and the interval between the two times was not long. The two reasons accumulated, so there was a problem with the car's charging line.

But the good news is that the internal combustion engine can still be used. If Qin Miao wants to, he can continue to run on the track. The only difference is that he lacks the power provided by the motor.

Since Qin Miao will not retire due to engine failure, there is no reason for Qin Miao to give up the championship.

His eyes returned to the playing field.

Although Hamilton's speed at this time was so fast that Qin Miao and all those who supported Qin Miao were frightened, the period from the starting point of DRS to the finish line was really too short.

If it was a very ordinary lap, then Qin Miao would definitely be overtaken by Hamilton before the braking point of T1.

If, before the DRS detection point of T22, Hamilton catches Qin Miao's wake, then there is a high possibility that Hamilton will overtake Qin Miao at this time.

But thankfully, none of that happened and it was already the last lap.

Although when he finally crossed the line, Hamilton had already taken the lead inside Qin Miao.

But Qin Miao still crossed the finish line before him.

After crossing the finish line, Qin Miao was still a little nervous. After all, from his perspective, he could not see the specific position of Hamilton's car behind him to the left.

All he could see at this time were the bright fireworks blooming on both sides of the track after crossing the line.

At this moment, Qin Miao had a doubt in his heart: Are these fireworks blooming for me or for Hamilton?

Soon, almost at the moment of crossing the line, Frankie's somewhat hysterical voice reached Qin Miao's ears through the team TR: "P1! Qin Miao! We are P1! You did a great job in this game, It’s really great! We won another championship!”

After hearing Franky's words, Qin Miao breathed a sigh of relief.

It seems that the fireworks are going off just for me.

In this race, Qin Miao tried his best, tried every trick, and even burned a battery. But fortunately, his hard work was not in vain in the end, and he got a result that satisfied both Qin Miao and the team.

After heaving a sigh of relief, Qin Miao was slightly stunned, and then the emotion of ecstasy spread.

In the past few games, Qin Miao has really been walking on thin ice. If he fails to run well in one game, his leading position in the standings will not be maintained.

But now, he finally found a suitable opportunity. After four games, Qin Miao finally won a game again.

At the same time, this also means that in next week's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Qin Miao only needs to finish in the top three, so in the 2021 season, which is his first season in F1, he can win the driver's championship!

But after being happy for a while, Qin Miao forced himself to calm down, because this season is not over, and anything can happen before the last game is finished.

After all, before the start of this race, no one expected that Hamilton and Verstappen would stab each other directly on the track and see red, right?

Moreover, Mercedes has clearly discovered through these few games that the FIA ​​is obviously deliberately suppressing the Mercedes team. They may feel that the Mercedes team has dominated the paddock for too long, and they are helping overtly and covertly. Verstappen and Red Bull Racing.

So in tomorrow's game, Qin Miao will not only have to face his teammate Hamilton, but also the deliberate targeting of Red Bull and the FIA ​​within the limits allowed by the rules.

All we can say is that the revolution has not yet succeeded and comrades still have to work hard.

(End of this chapter)