How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 367 Chapter 361: The second yellow flag

The safety car was used for four laps. When the race reached the 6th lap, the overhead lights went out and the race was about to restart.

Qin Miao also got a bargain, that is, his soft tires lost four laps of wear. In these few laps, Qin Miao had always controlled his tires at a very suitable temperature, so after the race restarted, Qin Miao Miao will have a chance to try and get the damn second position.

It is worth mentioning that starting from this game, the safety car introduced a new rule, that is, when the safety car is about to be released, the front wing of the rear car is not allowed to exceed the rear wing of the front car. The first time it will receive Warning, and the second time is directly +5 seconds.

In fact, Qin Miao has a feeling that this regulation is targeting Verstappen by name.

Because when this guy was in second place, during the release of the safety car, he liked to press from the side to the wheel-alignment position with the front wheel to put pressure on the driver of the car in front.

But this time, he finally calmed down and followed Leclerc honestly, not daring to go too far.

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(Before release in Australia)

Qin Miao was much calmer at the start, following Verstappen normally, crossing Verstappen's car and staring at Leclerc in front of Verstappen.

The reason for this performance is that Qin Miao has full confidence in his reaction speed at the start. He is sure that he can keep up with Leclerc's rhythm the moment Leclerc starts.

Facts have proved that Qin Miao never does anything he is not sure of.

Leclerc T14 started to accelerate after exiting the corner, and Qin Miao, who had been paying attention to Leclerc, was not slow in reacting and kept up with Leclerc's pace.

But Frankie, the strategy team member responsible for Qin Miao of Mercedes-Benz Racing Team and Qin Miao's track engineer, all frowned at the same time.

On lap 9, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton had reached 2 seconds.

They also expected that Qin Miao might still want to move up a few positions further, most likely waiting until the DRS area opens to try to overtake Verstappen in front of him.

The rear wheel of the car spun very briefly, so Hamilton directly seized this rare opportunity, forced his way into Perez's inside lane at T16, and completed his overtake of Perez.

When the race came to the 8th lap, the commentators clearly felt that the time gap between Qin Miao and the two drivers in front had not been widened, and Hamilton behind Qin Miao was visibly pulled by Qin Miao. open.

But with Hamilton's overtaking, Qin Miao not only had enough breathing time, but the time gap between him and Hamilton was directly expanded to 1 second.

Maybe those fans who have just entered the pit and don’t understand the F1 rules very well will be very happy after seeing such a scene, because Qin Miao’s performance in the race was indeed very good.

Coupled with the soft tires on Qin Miao's car, Qin Miao estimates that he will not have to consider the threat posed to him by the driver behind him for a long time.

And soon arrived at the position 0.8 seconds behind Verstappen. Qin Miao could already launch an attack on Verstappen.

Originally, the time gap between Perez and Qin Miao might have been only 0.5 seconds, and due to the gap in car performance, this time gap would soon be caught up by Perez.

Because Qin Miao was chasing the two cars in front by running in qualifying, Qin Miao's set of soft tires would be consumed very quickly.

Although both Toto, Elliott and other senior leaders of the team felt that Qin Miao's approach was a bit impulsive, they still believed in Qin Miao unconditionally. This was because Qin Miao had not taken any initiative during the entire season. and the confidence that forced errors gave them.

Qin Miao, who had been hanging behind Verstappen in front for about 1.5 seconds, began to release the remaining power in his racing battery with all his strength.

So everyone chose to remain silent.

But what is surprising is that Perez T15 rarely stepped on the accelerator too much when exiting the corner.

On Qin Miao's side, it was because of the fight between Hamilton and Perez that the time gap between himself and Hamilton was widened.

And because of the enactment of the new safety car rules, after the race restarted, neither Qin Miao nor Verstappen in front of Qin Miao could find a chance to attack the car in front.

But wait until the start straight on lap 11.

But as mentioned before, Qin Miao is now running the race with a qualifying attitude. Under this situation, any interference may cause Qin Miao's driving errors, which may lead to a car accident.

On lap 10, DRS is turned on.

This result is satisfactory to both Mercedes drivers. Hamilton has moved up one position, from fifth to fourth.

After Qin Miao drove DRS through the straightaway, he only relied on his own DRS to catch up to a position 0.4 seconds behind Verstappen. Despite this, Qin Miao still could not put any pressure on Verstappen.

Seeing this, Qin Miao, who has always been known for his stability, also got a little excited.

But at this time, Franky cooled down Qin Miao in a timely manner: "Qin Miao, your soft tire consumption has exceeded expectations, and Hamilton behind you did not prevent Perez's attack. At this time, Perez There is only 3 seconds left behind you, so protect your tires if you are still prepared to compete for the podium."

Qin Miao was just a little bit more aggressive and wanted to continue to attack Verstappen in front of him. He did not completely lose his mind because he could not surpass Verstappen.

So after hearing Franky's words, Qin Miao's eyes immediately returned to clarity.

"Copy that." Despite this, some unwillingness could still be heard in Qin Miao's tone.

Franky didn't say much. After confirming that Qin Miao's speed had indeed slowed down, he began to retrieve Qin Miao's tire data, and estimated how long Qin Miao's set of tires could last, so as to be ready to give Qin Miao advice at any time.

On the 15th lap, Perez caught up with Qin Miao by 0.9 seconds. At this time, Qin Miao's tires were pretty good. There were about five laps away from the cliff point, and his lap speed was only 0.5 seconds slower than Perez.

But this gap is actually quite large. With Qin Miao's current defensive ability, it will still be difficult for him to defend Perez's offense. After all, Albert Park is a high-speed track with many DRS areas.

If the time gap is reduced to 0.3 seconds, Qin Miao can really lock Perez directly.

However, Qin Miao could only struggle with the performance gap of the car.

However, what Qin Miao didn't expect was that Perez chased him very fiercely, but when Perez came behind him and started to attack him, he sucked in the turbulence of his car and the exhaust gas emitted. , Perez's speed actually dropped, and Qin Miao's pressure to defend him was greatly reduced!

If you think about it carefully, it's not without reason. Perez's set of tires must have suffered a lot.

First he had a fight with Hamilton, and then he chased him at full speed after the fight. It is estimated that Perez's set of medium tires did not have much durability left at this time.

Therefore, Qin Miao ran in front of Perez until his tires reached the cliff point, which was when he pitted for tire changes on the 18th lap, and then let Perez pass.

At this time, Perez was 6 seconds behind Verstappen in front of him. As for whether Qin Miao's defense of Perez will increase his tire consumption? So that Qin Miao could have run a few more laps on the track?

Just kidding, Zhou Haoran said before that Qin Miao's C5 can only last for 13 laps on the track at most. Although there is a safety car for four laps, the tire wear during the safety car period is only small, but not non-existent. In addition, Qin Miao was full of fuel, chasing Verstappen on the track, and defending Perez. Lin Lin finally came down. If Qin Miao's soft tires were used normally, there would be no pressure at all until lap 22. No.

Being able to make a pit stop at this time can only be said to be a normal pit stop.

After Qin Miao put on the medium tires and came out of the pit area, Qin Miao fell to tenth, in front of Tsunoda and behind Bottas. He was only 0.5 seconds behind Tsunoda and 2 seconds behind Bottas. .

The team's pit stop was extremely precise this time. If the pit stop was a little slower, Qin Miao would have to fall behind Taijun.

After coming out, Franky thought about Qin Miao's performance on the field using soft tires in today's game, so he advised Qin Miao: "If possible, protect your set of tires. If nothing happens, you I’m going to run to the end of the race on this set of tires.”

Qin Miao naturally agreed wholeheartedly, but to be honest, Qin Miao himself didn't know exactly what Qin Miao would do when he actually arrived on the field.

On lap 20, Qin Miao caught up behind Bottas at a speed of one second per lap, and when he caught up with Bottas, he happened to be in the DRS area between T12 and T13.

After a heavy dose of DRS, Qin Miao came to the start straight and easily passed Bottas in the Arrow Racing car.

Yes, Mercedes is really not good this season. It is difficult to see the taillights of Red Bull during the race, let alone Ferrari. Leclerc is now 5 seconds behind Verstappen.

But I can still control your bad Aluo with my hands.

And Bottas did not defend Qin Miao and directly let Qin Miao pass.

Qin Miao took advantage of the situation and came to ninth place.

The eighth place ahead is Gasly, who is 8 seconds away from Qin Miao.

When attacking Gasly, Qin Miao was also chopping up melons and vegetables. On the 21st lap, Qin Miao relied on DRS to pass Gasly on the same straightaway.

Compared with Bottas, Gasly's resistance is quite fierce. After all, he is a member of Red Bull, and the speed shown by Qin Miao has obviously begun to threaten the position of Red Bull driver Perez.

But Gasly's resistance was useless. Qin Miao didn't chat with you at all. He didn't cross the line and surpassed Gasly purely by speed.

And when Qin Miao came to the 22nd lap, he was a little surprised to find that Perez was undercut by him?

In fact, Perez was quite helpless. After Qin Miao came into the pit, his tires began to struggle a little, so much so that he was even run over by Hamilton before he came into the pit.

So it is normal for Perez to fall behind Qin Miao after coming out of the pit area.

The next step is interesting. Qin Miao is chopping melons and vegetables in front. Perez behind Qin Miao is about the same speed as Qin Miao.

However, lap 23 was also the pit stop window for other drivers. The drivers in front of Qin Miao and Perez opened their own one-stop pit stop windows.

By the 23rd lap, Qin Miao had already reached fifth place. In front was Alonso, who had not yet pitted, followed by Hamilton, and behind Hamilton was Perez.

Qin Miao always felt that the scene behind him seemed familiar.

In the second timing period on lap 23, Perez passed Hamilton.

Not long after passing Hamilton, a yellow flag appeared on the track again, and the yellow flag soon turned into a safety car.

When the camera cut away, it was discovered that Vettel's car was parked on the track, but fortunately, behind the place where he parked was the Matthew entrance, and from the appearance, there was no obvious damage to the four wheels of Vettel's car. Matthew was able to get the car off the track very quickly.

……

Vettel's mistake this time was actually somewhat undeserved.

The place where he made a mistake was at the exit position of T4. After exiting the corner, there was a relatively high curb on the outside. When exiting the corner this time, Vettel took too much of the curb, causing the chassis of his car to hit the shoulder. Vettel gave the gas before he hit the ground again.

So much so that the rear wheels of his car spun briefly, and when he landed, the grip of the rear wheels was completely gone.

As a result, the car lost control and hit the barrier of the track.

The front nose of Martin's car was knocked off on the spot, and the pieces were scattered on the ground.

Naturally, the safety car needs to be dispatched to allow Matthew to clean up these debris.

Well, now those drivers who didn't pit before the pit window were in trouble.

Everyone can get a pit stop for free.

And those drivers who have just come out of the pit area and haven't even run a lap, probably want to die at this time.

However, Qin Miao is emotionally stable about this and is even a little eager to try. He is currently using medium tires and Verstappen and Leclerc are using hard tires.

After the car formation was re-compressed, he had a chance to attack them.

Maybe I can not only get a podium, but also a runner-up?

But while running, Qin Miao discovered something was wrong. Why didn't Alonso in front of him stop? Obviously, I had just passed by the entrance to the maintenance area...

But take a closer look at Alonso's tire choice ahead, white tires.

When I asked in the team TR, everything became clear.

Alonso started the race on white tires. Although the driver who stopped at this time had already entered the pit area once, the driver using white tires was only halfway through the distance. pitting at this time was indeed not worth the gain.

(End of this chapter)