Chapter 717: Chapter 288: Is It Still Not Enough?

Chen Xiangbei didn’t know Perez’s thoughts, but if he did, he would say that his intuition was very correct.

Indeed, he intentionally gave Perez a bit of slipstream.

The reason is simple; having experienced Trulli’s incident, Chen Xiangbei understood the importance of teamwork.

Perhaps to put it more bluntly, you must repay what you owe in life; someday you’ll also need help from others. No one can always be the aloof "god".

Even Schumacher, in his career at Mercedes, has lost his sharpness and edge, focusing more on assisting the team’s development rather than using all means for victory.

In later years, Verstappen had a major controversy in the 2022 season at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Despite having no pressure on his ranking, he refused to give even a sixth place to the trailing Perez, preventing his teammate from competing for second place in the world championship.

At that time, their relationship was on the verge of breaking. In the following Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Verstappen even deliberately erased Perez’s fastest lap, depriving him of an extra point, which was like sprinkling salt on a wound.

At that time, Verstappen exhibited all the traits of a GOAT-level driver through the ages.

Strong, assertive, defiant, willing to employ any means for victory.

His actions might have been induced by Perez’s extraordinary performance early in the season and the ambition to challenge him, which offended this new generation of champion.

A king does not tolerate provocation!

Chen Xiangbei certainly had his own pride, but he also had a "God’s eye view," knowing that after Perez leaves, Verstappen would no longer find a number two driver who could follow his pace and act as a wingman.

Going it alone ultimately could not defeat the McLaren duo.

The only fortunate aspect was that the McLaren duo were so closely matched in strength, leading to a concealed defect of neither accepting the other, giving Verstappen the chance for a 1V1V1 battle.

If it were a combination like Schumacher and Barrichello, even Autobots would struggle to have much success.

Chen Xiangbei’s current goal was not to maintain himself in the circuit but to "benefit the world". Therefore, he inevitably needed the number two driver to provide crucial help at key moments.

Perez has proven himself historically to be a top-notch number two driver.

Given this, appropriately showing goodwill and providing some help was not a bad thing.

It is true that teammates are competitors, but the circuit is not a zero-sum game.

There is always a possibility of a win-win situation.

"Bei, Perez, pit stop early."

After the celebration, Odetto’s instructions came through the earphones.

If the flying lap is completed before the track gets completely soaked, there’s no need to run anymore.

Because no matter what, a car equipped with rain tires can’t be faster than one with soft red tires.

Indeed, the weather wasn’t on Chen Xiangbei’s side, but he managed to change destiny with his own strength, and this flying lap is the final result for Q2!

In fact, this was true; as Chen Xiangbei slowed down and returned to the pit, the drivers behind him on soft red tires who hadn’t completed their laps were unlucky.

Seven minutes into the second qualifying session, Lotus Team’s Little Senna ran off the track.

Just ten seconds later, Saub Team’s Kobayashi Kamui ran off the track, both cars suffering minor damages.

Seeing this situation, the teams still performing the flying laps reacted, realizing that the Lingyan Circuit’s rate of water accumulation was far quicker than expected, and the soft red tires might not be able to sustain for the flying lap.

Consequently, a large number of cars, about ten, entered the pits to change tires, then emerged with intermediate rain tires to brush the lap.

Though full rain tires are an option in F1 races, it is rarely seen in reality for teams to change to full rain tires for flying laps.

On one hand, the lap time with full rain tires is terribly slow, prompting many teams and drivers to prefer gambling with intermediate rain tires.

On the other hand, if rainy conditions necessitate full rain tires, the FIA often considers safety and ends the race early, turning the full rain tires into a decorative item.

Yet, the management of these teams understood radar weather maps and rainfall quantities; however, they didn’t understand just how poor the drainage capabilities of Lingyan Circuit are!

Scenarios theoretically manageable with intermediate rain tires turned into cars becoming boats.

The track saturated with water couldn’t be drained clean by intermediate rain tires. Eleven minutes into the second qualifying session, Lotus Team’s Kovalainen crashed into the wall causing a red flag.

With a mindset of disbelief, the race restarted two minutes later, and Indian Force’s driver Riu crashed into the wall again, triggering a red flag.

In just five minutes’ time, there were four race incidents, considering driver safety, FIA was forced to end the second qualifying session early, HRT Team’s Chen Xiangbei and Perez officially both advanced!

Knowing the result in advance, there was naturally not much need for celebration. At this moment, HRT Team focused more on the upcoming third qualifying session.

With all drivers switching to rain tires, it was equivalent to everyone standing on the same starting line again; Chen Xiangbei’s car bias towards a setup for the main race as well as lowering the power of the power unit became his fatal deficiencies.

Even though after entering Q3, the worst result would be starting from tenth.

But neither Chen Xiangbei nor HRT Team was content with this!

While HRT Team was discussing, the two commentators in the studio were still debating Q2’s results.

With a mocking tone, Red asked: "Park, it seems it’s not like you said, even heaven isn’t on Driver Bei’s side."