How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 327 330: The Legend Exits

After passing the combined turns T6 and T7, Perez was thrown away by Hamilton at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Before the braking point of T9, Perez actively slowed down and gave up his position to Verstappen, allowing Verstappen to chase Hamilton in front.

When Verstappen came behind Hamilton again, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was only 1.3 seconds. It can be said that the two drivers were back on the same starting line again.

On the same lap, Perez, whose tires were running out of gas, chose to pit and change tires. His task in this game did not end there. In addition to helping Verstappen defend Hamilton, he also had to go back and try to block it. Qin Miao's pursuit rhythm.

Although it is meaningless to stop Qin Miao at this time, you still have to try. What if there is a miracle and Qin Miao has an accident while defending Perez?

The good news is that Qin Miao has not pitted yet, so if Perez pits early at this time, he will have enough time to fully charge the battery of his car and wait for Qin Miao to pit. Opportunities behind you.

Qin Miao continued to persevere on the track. At this time, he was still 6 seconds away from Verstappen ahead, and this time gap was expanding at a rate of 0.3 seconds per lap.

But Qin Miao was not anxious at all, because he was faster than Alonso Gasly and others behind him.

And his main goal in this game is not to win the championship, but to secure the top three.

Therefore, Qin Miao is preparing to run at his own pace. As long as his overall speed is faster than Perez, Qin Miao will not encounter any big threats in this game.

On the other side, Verstappen gradually lost the time advantage that Perez had gained for himself.

Hamilton is gradually pulling away from Verstappen behind him at a speed of 0.4 seconds per lap.

There is no way, the gap in car performance cannot be easily made up by the efforts of a second driver.

By the time the race came to lap 23, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen had reached 2.3 seconds.

If he continues running at this pace, Hamilton may have to open the time gap between himself and Verstappen to about 10 seconds.

At this time, the sky on the track was gradually getting dark, and all the lights on the track turned on, illuminating the originally dark track as bright as day.

On the 25th lap, the set of soft tires on Qin Miao's car that had been running for 27 laps finally came to an end. Not long after Hamilton passed the finish line on the 25th lap, Qin Miao entered the maintenance area.

In fact, normally Qin Miao could put on a set of medium tires and run the entire race at this time, but the team took into account the fact that the track temperature will get lower and lower as the race progresses during the race.

In order to further avoid the risk caused by the tire heating problem, the team replaced Qin Miao with a set of hard tires.

The team's idea is very simple. It's still the same word. Qin Miao must use the word stability throughout this game.

Faced with the team's choice, Qin Miao did not object. In this regard, Qin Miao still believed in the judgment of the team's strategy team.

After a normal pit stop to change tires, the tire change time is 2.4 seconds, which is quite satisfactory for Mercedes.

After leaving the station, Qin Miao fell to a position 3 seconds behind Perez.

This is actually inevitable, because Perez was in front of Qin Miao before he pitted to change tires. It can even be said that before Qin Miao's dilapidated set of soft tires ended its final mission, Qin Miao was still faster than Perez. Reitz’s new hard tires are fast, but not by much.

After the race got here, basically all the drivers made a pit stop.

This is pretty much where the riders ended up.

Qin Miao is temporarily ranked fourth, and there is only one Perez left before Hamilton's dream of eight crowns is shattered.

Verstappen, on the other hand, had long since fallen flat. The main thing he was thinking about at the moment was: it’s the last race, let’s try to win the championship.

Of course, this is just a joke. Verstappen still has the possibility of a comeback at this time, such as Qin Miao's car accident or a tire blowout.

So Perez had to defend Qin Miao fiercely for Verstappen no matter what, even if it was just for the 1% possibility.

Even if doing so would help Hamilton.

Red Bull cannot be eaten due to choking.

However, when Perez defended Qin Miao this time, he did not give up almost all his time advantage like he did when defending Hamilton, and he didn't carelessly slow down to block the driver behind him.

Perez was running the race normally at this time, waiting for Qin Miao to gradually catch up with him.

On the 27th lap, the legendary driver Kimi, the last Ferrari driver's championship winner, had an accident on the track, knocking off the front nose of his car, and there were obvious signs of damage to the suspension and brake of the right front wheel.

But fortunately, Kimi can still drive his own car at this time.

However, after returning to the maintenance area, the team technician discovered that the suspension of Kimi's car was broken and there was no way to repair it during the race. Therefore, the last race of Kimi's career was marked by this crash and retirement. A full stop.

Many old car fans at the scene couldn't help but feel a little sad and lonely in their hearts after seeing this scene.

Many more emotional fans sitting in front of the TV sighed sadly, another familiar driver left the F1 field.

Heroes grow old and beauties grow old. These are all things that make people feel extremely regretful after watching them.

After Kimi retired from the race, the spectators near the starting grid waited until Kimi got off the car and gave the legendary Ferrari star their own applause.

It's just that from Kimi's expressionless face at this time, the audience can't judge Kimi's inner feelings at this time, but based on Kimi's character, he should probably be happy at this time...

However, because they were playing at this time, many spectators were still watching Qin Miao's game. Therefore, the applause given to Kimi at the scene was somewhat sparse.

Of course, with Kimi's temperament, he won't care about this, and he may even be happier if he can even get off work early and retire.

But in any case, we should say goodbye to this legendary F1 driver from Finland with gratitude: Kimi Rikknen.

On lap 28, Qin Miao shortened the gap between himself and Perez to 0.6 seconds.

The two drivers are about to start a fierce offensive and defensive battle in the first DRS area on lap 28.

Because of Perez's wonderful performance when defending Hamilton, the audience at this time had expectations for Perez.

The audience felt that Perez would adopt the same defensive method against Qin Miao, and the effect should be similar to Perez's defense of Hamilton. After all, in the subjective perspective of many people, although Qin Miao is extremely talented in racing, A talented driver, but compared with his teammate Hamilton, Qin Miao still has a lot of room for growth. Waiting until Qin Miao came behind Perez and entered the first DRS straight on the track through T5 together with Perez.

The scene on the field was completely different from what the audience expected.

Although Perez started to draw a dragon as soon as he entered the DRS area, Qin Miao still approached and surpassed Perez from the outside at an incredible speed.

There is quite a charm of defeating all laws with one force.

Then the audience's eyes towards Qin Miao began to become complicated. Perez had just defended Hamilton for more than 7 seconds. For Hamilton, that lap was not an exaggeration to call it hell.

Why did you get to Qin Miao's place? Qin Miao was completely destroyed in the DRS area?

Perez was also a little confused: Yes, I also want to know why I was immediately killed by Qin Miao?

My ERS battery is full! I opened ERS. Why is it so fast?

In fact, Qin Miao fully charged his battery in the first few laps, and then turned on DRS in the DRS area and at the same time turned on the highest power mode of the racing battery, so he could drive at such a terrifying speed. Fleeed over.

But it was not without cost. One DRS straightaway burned 70% of Qin Miao's battery power.

But Qin Miao is not worried about any problems with the battery. On the one hand, this is a newly replaced battery, so the possibility of problems is very low. On the other hand, the season will be over after this game.

Apart from the Pirelli tire test after the end of the season, Qin Miao's W11 is unlikely to participate in other competitions.

After that, it was either taken out for exhibition, or put in the storage room of the Mercedes-Benz team headquarters for show.

Therefore, Qin Miao doesn't have any psychological burden at all when using this mode.

After easily surpassing Perez, Qin Miao's speed slowed down significantly.

Because as Qin Miao surpassed Perez, his ranking rose to third. Although the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao, who was ranked second at this time, had reached 25 seconds, this time The difference seems somewhat irrelevant.

Because no matter what, as long as Qin Miao completes this race with his current ranking, the 2021 driver championship will 100% fall into Qin Miao's pocket.

Therefore, although Qin Miao's overtaking of Perez on the field seemed a bit ordinary and without any disturbance.

But when Qin Miao completed this overtake, domestic fans and the live broadcast room that was broadcasting the game, or the studios of Five-Star Sports and Tencent Sports all burst into extremely enthusiastic cheers.

Although many people were mentally prepared before the start of today's game, they guessed that Qin Miao might break the history of Chinese racing and win the final driver's championship.

But after Qin Miao arrived at this position, those fans and fans who were expecting Qin Miao to bring back good news and make achievements on the field were so excited that they couldn't contain themselves.

Among the dormitories of many universities, someone in the originally quiet dormitory area rushed to the balcony of the dormitory without fear of death and roared outside the dormitory: "Qin Miao is awesome!"

In an instant, a stone stirred up a thousand waves, just like a monkey suddenly making a warning call in the forest. Soon other monkeys would start warning, and then there would only be monkeys in the entire forest. Just like the roar, other cheers and strange screams also came out one after another from the campus dormitories.

What? Interrupt other students' rest? How can they care so much when they are too excited and excited at this time?

In addition to the overly explosive celebrations of these college students, the vast majority of domestic car fans are young people who have already started families and have their own jobs.

Many people took leave from the company, invited a few friends, and went to a small bar near their home that specialized in watching F1 races, or bought some barbecue or something, drove their cars to camp, and then stayed up late to watch the races. Eating barbecue and chatting with friends.

And after seeing Qin Miao come to the third place, the noise made by this group of people was no less than that of the young people.

The only group of fans who are relatively quiet are those who are married and have children who stay up late to watch races at home.

Although they also wanted to cheer loudly, considering that their wives had to go to work and their children had to go to school tomorrow, Monday, they finally resisted the urge to cheer.

But you have to find a way to vent your inner excitement, so I saw this group of car fans dancing and dancing at home, as if they were holding some mysterious religious ceremony. Coupled with the light coming from the TV, it looked weird.

……

In the P room of the Mercedes team, after Qin Miao passed the driver in front of him, there were two completely different atmospheres in the P room of the team.

Half of the Hamilton team's staff and relatives and friends had sad faces at this time.

But after Qin Miao surpassed Perez, they also gave Qin Miao applause.

The other half are more "cheerful".

They immediately started high-fiving each other.

Many people even hugged each other and jumped up and down.

What? You said the game isn't over yet and it's too early to celebrate?

Qin Miao has not made any low-level mistakes in a season, so the staff of Qin Miao's racing team believe in Qin Miao just as Qin Miao believes in them.

At this time, Toto and other Mercedes-Benz senior managers were also smiling.

Although they also hope that Hamilton will break F1's historical record and achieve an unprecedented eight championships.

But if Qin Miao wins the driver's championship in his first season, they will also be happy to see it happen.

After all, Qin Miao is considered a talent discovered by Toto. Qin Miao will always have Toto's mark on his body. The better his performance, the greater Toto's contribution.

So from the team's perspective, no matter who of the two drivers wins the final driver's championship, it is acceptable to the team.

At this time, the Mercedes-Benz team is just carrying water, and it has truly achieved an even goal. The team will not favor anyone.

The same is true when celebrating.

After Qin Miao surpassed Perez, even if there were severe mood swings, it would not affect his physical condition. Qin Miao felt that his hands had a numb feeling due to excessive secretion of adrenaline. Qin Miao no longer remembered what happened. When was the first time I felt this feeling, but one thing is certain, that is, this feeling is really good.

After all, the position he couldn't even imagine two years ago was now at his feet.

(End of this chapter)