How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 469 - 211: Classic Replay

It’s as if he was born to sit here.

At this moment, Qin Miao felt just this way. Although the safety belts tightly constrained his body, Qin Miao felt no discomfort, surprisingly calm, as if every cell in his body was relaxed.

Soon, the warm-up lap began.

Qin Miao followed behind Norris, driving the car out.

After completing a warm-up lap, everyone sluggishly returned to their starting grid positions.

Qin Miao also lingered outside his grid for a while before finally parking his car on the grid.

After all, it’s well known that the longer one stays on the grid, the more the temperature raised by the warm-up lap drops.

Qin Miao parked at his position for another half-minute before Giovinazzi, starting from 20th position, finally stopped on his grid.

"All cars ready, watch the lights." After Giovinazzi parked, Frankie’s voice came through in the TR.

Qin Miao flexed his limbs, then tightly grasped the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on the signal lights above the track.

When the second red light lit up, Qin Miao revved his car’s engine to around 9100 RPM.

Then, five red lights illuminated one by one, and following Hamilton’s advice, Qin Miao exhaled completely, then held his breath.

After the five red lights had illuminated for at least a second, they extinguished, and Qin Miao released the clutch button on the steering wheel the moment he saw them go out.

The car instantly launched.

In that instant, Qin Miao absorbed every detail into view: his car’s gearing, RPM, speed, and the positions of Sainz and Gasly ahead and Perez and Tsunoda behind.

The good news was that Qin Miao had an excellent start; the two drivers behind him did not close in on him during the launch.

Qin Miao’s reaction to the start was quick, and with the power output from the ERS and rich fuel mode, even though Qin Miao wasn’t driving in the racing line where Sainz had better ground grip, he still notably closed the gap with Sainz after the start. Qin Miao even felt that, barring any surprises, he could catch up and overtake Gasly ahead of him, more than a car length away.

But then, a frustrating event occurred for Qin Miao; Sainz obviously didn’t want Qin Miao to pass him so easily. After a successful start, instead of running his rhythm on the more grippy racing line, Sainz moved to Qin Miao’s dirty side to snatch the inside line heading into T1.

Sainz had been observing Qin Miao from the start, realizing Qin Miao’s start was not only better but much better than his. If Sainz did nothing and continued his rhythm, Qin Miao would definitely overtake him on the inside at T1.

Therefore, to defend against Qin Miao, Sainz had to do something.

Qin Miao naturally started faster than Sainz, facing Sainz’s aggressive inside line, Qin Miao didn’t flinch and simply took the outside line.

Subsequently, Qin Miao capitalized on the advantage gained from the start to be side by side with Sainz before entering T1.

But due to Sainz’s obstruction, Qin Miao used quite some traction for turning during the start, so although Qin Miao’s starting speed was initially higher than Gasly’s, this turning cost him the advantage.

Soon, the stream of cars arrived at the T1 entry position.

Despite having the chance to see Verstappen’s rear ahead, the gap between them was at least a second, so Qin Miao wasn’t worried about Verstappen interfering at T1.

A Mercedes and a Ferrari entered T1 side by side.

As they entered T1, the positions of the four cars ahead remained unchanged.

After all, Ferrari has single-lap competitiveness, and Leclerc safely maintained his pole position at the start.

Hamilton and Verstappen were aware their cars were better than Leclerc’s, so there was no need to consider anything else at the start except ensuring their survival.

With the longer race ahead, they could slowly find opportunities to overtake Leclerc.

However, unlike the drivers ahead, Qin Miao aimed to improve his position as early as possible because, from Qin Miao’s observation, his starting ability allows him to boast a bit against Sainz.

Hence, he began attacking Sainz from the start.

Sainz’s idea was quite straightforward: Damn it! Why does the internet keep pressuring me? Why are people saying I’m inferior to Qin Miao? Do they think this lousy Ferrari would confuse him too if he drove it?

No way, I have to prove I’m better than Qin Miao!

Since he wanted to prove he was better than Qin Miao, Sainz certainly wasn’t going to concede his position to Qin Miao during the start.

However, sometimes things don’t go as wished. That’s exactly how it was for Sainz at the moment. He planned to block the inside line and to brake late coming out of T1, using his line advantage to force Qin Miao’s exit space.

Ideally, he’d directly push Qin Miao out.

How did Qin Miao respond?

When braking into the corner, Qin Miao braked slightly earlier than Sainz, but not significantly so, only about a third of a car length quicker. Consequently, upon cornering, Qin Miao’s left front wheel directly blocked behind Sainz’s right front wheel.

Maintaining a delicate position where Qin Miao’s front wing was merely inches from colliding with Sainz’s right front wheel, and where his left front wheel was nearly touching Sainz’s side pod.