How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 408 411: Two consecutive championships
On lap 60, the race restarted.

At this time, Qin Miao had an 11-second gap with Leclerc behind him.

At this time, Leclerc and Verstappen were wearing medium tires that had been run for 4 laps.

Next, they need to catch up with Qin Miao and complete the overtaking of Qin Miao within the remaining 11 laps of the game.

But what makes Ferrari and Red Bull feel sore is that the grip of Qin Miao's soft tires has not dropped significantly. In the lap just coming out of the pit area, neither Leclerc nor Verstappen could catch up with Qin Miao!
Qin Miao's single lap speed was even 0.3 seconds faster than Leclerc's.

Not to mention Verstappen's single lap speed is not as fast as Leclerc's.

Of course this is actually a matter of tire temperature.

Leclerc and Verstappen had just come out of the pit area. Although both drivers tried their best to maintain the temperature of the car tires under the virtual safety car, the lap time of the car during the virtual safety car period was not fast enough after all. , so their intermediate tires did not reach the most suitable working temperature.

Qin Miao's soft tires are always at a suitable temperature, so after the virtual safety car, he can continuously accelerate and decelerate to use the heat radiation of the brake disc to maintain the temperature of the tires.

And this way the tires will not be excessively consumed.

After reaching the straight track, Qin Miao asked: "How is his speed?"

On lap 65, Qin Miao got some not-so-good news through Team TR.

"Got it. Keep watching for me."

In every subsequent lap, French will tell Qin Miao in the team TR how much time gap is left between him and Leclerc.

"In the last two laps, there is still a 4-second gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc. It seems...Qin Miao still has to keep persisting! A person who travels a hundred miles is half a mile, and Qin Miao must hold on to his last breath. "At Five-Star Sports, Brother Bing, who was planning to congratulate Qin Miao in advance for winning another race, suddenly stopped and changed his tone.

Frankie obviously paused for a moment, and then said: "The speed has slowed down, but not enough. It has dropped from 0.9 seconds per lap to 0.7 seconds per lap. But don't worry, at this pursuit speed, before the end of the game Leclerc can’t catch you.”

The time gap between the two has remained unchanged at 2.7 seconds.

In fact, Qin Miao still hopes that Verstappen behind him can try to attack Leclerc. At least in this way, the pressure on him will be much less at this time.

However, when the race came to the 63rd lap, Qin Miao basically had no speed advantage over the two people behind him.

Zhou Haoran and Brother Xia on the side also looked at each other and smiled after hearing this.

Therefore, at the start, the tire grip of Qin Miao's car was stronger than that of the two.

"Qin Miao, the current wear status of our soft tires is still expected. If we continue to maintain it, we can finish the race before Leclerc catches up."

"receive."

But the Ferrari car in this race is fast, and Verstappen cannot pose any threat to Leclerc on this track.

At this time, Leclerc can chase Qin Miao for 0.3 seconds per lap.

However, the time gap between the two is still 12 seconds at this time, so Qin Miao does not have to worry about his position for a short time.

On lap 69, there were two laps left before the end of the race. At this time, Leclerc had reached the position 4 seconds behind Qin Miao, and the close rate between him and Qin Miao had reached the point of every lap due to the continuous consumption of Qin Miao's soft tires. 1.1 seconds.

"Qin Miao, there seems to be something wrong with the accelerator pedal of Leclerc's car. The accelerator of his car cannot be returned to its original position. It remains at about 20% of the throttle output for a long time. We estimate that the Ferrari car has encountered a mechanical failure. What's wrong? We will notify you of other situations as soon as possible.”

Qin Miao was stunned for a moment. Is Ferrari starting to work again?

……

After arriving here, many fans of Qin Miao and Mercedes-Benz finally let go of their worries.

In the past, Five Star Sports was indifferent to whether it would directly milk a driver to death.

After all, there were no drivers in the paddock that they particularly cared about at that time, and different commentators even liked different drivers, so the one who stood out was Unscrupulous.

But now with Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu, the commentators have learned to exercise restraint when such drivers face the final blow.

They were afraid that something would really happen.

In the last two laps, Qin Miao's lap speed was still good.

The reason why Qin Miao is under so much pressure now is because Leclerc's medium tires are much newer than Qin Miao's.

In the last lap, Qin Miao actually wanted to release all his strength, but the team still said in the team TR: "Don't act rashly, just finish this last lap steadily at a normal speed. Leclerc chases Don’t come up.”

Qin Miao, who was somewhat anxious, suppressed his inner emotions and finished the last lap steadily.

Finally, with the checkered flag dancing, Qin Miao crossed the finish line first.

Toto and all the staff of the Mercedes-Benz team breathed a sigh of relief at this moment, and naturally celebrated afterwards.

The five-star sports commentators could finally breathe a sigh of relief, applauding and saying excitedly: "Let us congratulate Qin Miao! After half a season of sluggishness, the team has finally returned to where the team should have been. Qin Miao’s incredible tire management ability won the Austrian Grand Prix. The most important thing is that this is Qin Miao’s first two consecutive victories in the 2022 season.”

"It's not easy. In this race, Qin Miao followed Leclerc and Verstappen for almost the whole race."

"But fortunately, it was Qin Miao's terrifying ability to protect the fetus that had the last laugh in this match."

"Congratulations to Qin Miao! Congratulations to Mei Ben too!"

……

The final rankings and scores of this game are as follows:
P1: Qin Miao +26 (fastest lap)
P2: Leclerc +18
P3: Verstappen +14
P4: Hamilton +12
P5: Perez +10
P6: Aokang 8
P7: Zhou Guanyu +6
P8: Mick +4
P9: Norris +2
P10: Magnussen +1
After adding the points gained in the sprint race, the total score of the drivers in this race is as follows:
1: Qin Miao +31
2: Leclerc +25
3: Verstappen +22
4: Hamilton +13
5: Perez +14
6: O'Connell +11
7: Zhou Guanyu +6
8: Sainz +6
9: Mick +4
10: Magnussen +3
11: Norris +2
After this race, the overall driver standings are as follows:

1: Qin Miao.185
2: Verstappen.156
3: Leclerc.156
4: Perez.138
5: Sainz.94
6: Hamilton.77
7: Norris.52
8: O'Connell.50
9: Bottas.38
10: Magnussen.19
11: Zhou Guanyu.19
12: Gasly.15
13: Alonso.15
14: Vettel.14
15: Ricardo.12
16: Tsunoda.9
17: Mick.6
18: Albon.1
19: Stroll.1
After this game, Qin Miao widened the points gap between himself, Verstappen and Leclerc.

On the other hand, Hamilton scored a points number that is both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

At the same time, Zhou Guanyu also achieved a good overall points ranking due to his good performance in the main race. Of course, the worst thing is Russell. There have been 11 grand prix races so far. Due to the limitations of the Williams car's performance, he always lingers at the door of the points area and never goes in to find out. Opportunity.

And he is the only driver who has not scored points this season.

The team standings after this race are as follows:
1: Red Bull: 314
2: Mercedes: 305
3: Ferrari: 274
4: Alpine: 77
5: McLaren: 64
6: Alfa Romeo: 64
7: Haas: 25
8: Little Red Bull: 24
9: Aston Martin: 16
10: Williams: 1
After the game, although both Mercedes drivers performed well in today's game, Mercedes still did not surpass Red Bull in the team's overall standings, but the total points gap between the two teams was only 9 separated.

On the other side, because of Zhou Guanyu's outstanding performance in today's race, Arrow Racing's total points are already the same as McLaren. If in the next few games, Zhou Guanyu and Bottas can still show their performance at the beginning of this season.

Then Arrow Racing is expected to achieve the team's best results in recent seasons, at least fifth in the team standings.

And you must know that the total points gap between Alpine and Arrow Racing at this time is only 13 points.

It is also worth mentioning that Zhou Guanyu has defeated his teammate Bottas in the qualifying and race stages in recent games.

The recent signal sent by Sauber clearly praised Zhou Guanyu and expressed its willingness to give Zhou Guanyu a long-term contract.

After crossing the line, even though Verstappen only finished third in today's race, the Austrian fans at the scene still set off the iconic orange smoke of the Red Bull Ring after crossing the line.

At least Verstappen was on the podium in this race anyway.

Of course, during the parade after the game, Qin Miao clearly felt that the cheers from the audience were much smaller than last season when Verstappen won the two home races. Even some local fans were not counted. In many places, few people cheered.

"P1, Qin Miao, we are P1. This race ran as well as ever. Congratulations to your son, enjoy everything that belongs to you." Among the team TR, the first person to communicate with Qin Miao was not Frank. Odd, but Toto.

It can be seen that after a devastating start for the Mercedes team, the two consecutive victories made Toto very happy for a while.

Except for Toto, everyone on the team was very excited and clenched their fists in celebration.

"Last week's upgrade has a significant effect, and the driving experience of the car has been greatly improved." Qin Miao replied with a smile.

But to be honest, before the start of this game, Qin Miao never thought that he could win the championship again. All he wanted was to enter the top three, get a podium, and continue to refresh his position in the team. A record of defeating his teammate Hamilton.

This championship is also an unexpected surprise for Qin Miao.

Driving back to the maintenance area, Qin Miao parked his car in position C.

After the car parked, the on-site staff's broadcast camera focused on Qin Miao.

Watch him take off the steering wheel of the car, then untie the headrest and climb out of the car. He stands on his racing flip-flops and raises his right hand high, making a one sign.

At this moment, all the photographers and reporters on the scene used their camera tools to focus on the defending champion from China.

After using his incredible balance ability to stand on the flip-flops and celebrate for a while, Qin Miao jumped off the flip-flops, and then his heels flew away. Qin Miao took them off and did not reinstall them on the car. steering wheel.

"Hey, hey, be careful." Brother Bing was startled when he saw this scene, fearing that Qin Miao would accidentally step on his steering wheel and fall when he jumped out.

Although the physical fitness of Qin Miao and other F1 drivers is better than that of most normal people, but again, Qin Miao is the top favorite among domestic fans, and I really don't want him to have any accidents and fail to compete in the race.

Qin Miao also looked at the steering wheel that was knocked away by his foot in confusion, and hurried over to pick it up.

The F1 driver's steering wheel is actually very light. After all, except for the electronic components and circuit board display inside the steering wheel, other parts of the steering wheel are made of carbon fiber, so the weight is naturally not too high.

Of course, there were more or less scratches on the steering wheel that rolled around twice after it landed on the ground after being stepped on by Qin Miao.

I picked it up and looked at it. Except for some scratches, everything else was fine. I saved at least $10 in steering wheel repair costs.

Qin Miao breathed a sigh of relief and learned a lesson. He quickly turned back and reinstalled the steering wheel on the racing car.

Of course, a small accident and episode will not affect the celebration of Qin Miao and his team colleagues.

Even when Qin Miao rushed into the crowd, Franky and the others laughed even louder.

After giving Reyes a firm hug, Qin Miao greeted the staff of his crew one by one, and then arrived at Toto.

"Nice job, but you have to be careful next time. The steering wheel is actually not cheap." Toto said jokingly while patting Qin Miao on the back with a smile.

Qin Miao could only smile and spread his hands helplessly and said: "I'll pay attention in the next game, or the team can invest more resources in the protection of the steering wheel so that I can use the steering wheel as a dart."

"I will think about it and I will put forward the proposal in the post-race meeting when I get back to team headquarters this week."

……

After joking with Toto for a while, Qin Miao was originally going to say hello to Le Laoer, and then go to the weigh-in for post-game interviews or something.

However, Qin Miao saw his mother on the edge of the crowd of Mercedes-Benz motorcade.

When she first quit her job, my mother complained to herself and Qiu Meng that they were not used to this kind of life and that they were too busy every day.

But after getting used to it, my mother obviously started to enjoy it.

After spending a few months getting familiar with the foreign environment and practicing her spoken English to the point where she could communicate with people normally, she started traveling around.

Of course, Qin Miao also knew that foreign countries were not as good as China, so he hired a bodyguard for her. Of course she was a girl. I heard that she was retired from the domestic armed police, so Qin Miao didn't have the means to investigate.

However, it was very difficult for Qin Miao to arm-wrestle with the opponent. Although he won, it took away a lot of Qin Miao's strength.

In the end, Qin Miao naturally agreed.

In short, at this time, my mother should be traveling. Qin Miao really didn't expect to see each other here.

PS. I have been busy with things recently. I only have 4K today, and I will resume the normal payment rhythm tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)