How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 480 - 214: Pairs

But perhaps the race stewards had their own plans. Although there was a lot of debris on the track, they didn’t bring out the red flag, instead choosing to close the pit lane and deploy the safety car.

The reason for closing the pit lane was that Stroll’s crash happened outside the pit lane entrance, and pitting at this time could very likely cause a secondary accident.

So the stewards only deployed the safety car.

Fortunately, Stroll climbed out of the car on his own, and it seemed like he wasn’t seriously injured.

When the director switched to Stroll’s perspective at the time of the crash, he could be seen driving smoothly when suddenly the rear tires seemed to lose grip, and the entire rear started to shift to the right.

The car’s front tire grip was then compromised, causing the car to crash directly into the left side barrier.

Although Stroll didn’t let go of the steering wheel and protect himself in time, because the car’s overall inertia was forward-facing, the impact wasn’t particularly severe when the front of the car hit the left barrier.

Even though Qin Miao didn’t have much interaction with Stroll off-track and had only exchanged a few words when they met, after confirming it was Stroll with the issue, Qin Miao still asked through TR: "Is Stroll okay?"

"Stroll is fine, he’s been taken back to the pit by the medical car," Frankie replied.

During this boring period, the director seized the chance to let the audience enjoy Qin Miao’s remarks for entertainment.

Fei sighed after hearing, "This kid Qin Miao is quite caring, asking about Stroll after his accident."

Bing remarked, "Even though we’ve never had the chance to meet Qin Miao in person, once during a phone conversation with Zhou Guanyu, we talked about Qin Miao, and Zhou Guanyu mentioned that Qin Miao was a very nice person."

...

Qin Miao naturally didn’t know that his habitual concern had won him a wave of new fans.

He was still in his car, consuming the exhaust from Verstappen’s car while constantly accelerating and braking.

This method could charge his ERS, and it also helped heat his brake pads, using heat radiation to transfer heat to the tires.

Mercedes had optimized the brake duct for this purpose, so both Qin Miao and Hamilton used this method to heat their tires.

After three laps behind the safety car, the race organization announced that it was now safe to pit.

However, the teams were already lined up, and unless there was no hope for points, no one would choose to pit at this time.

At the same time, Mazepin was un-lapped, which was amusing, as he was the only lapped car in this race.

Unfortunately, Mazepin couldn’t achieve the feat of being lapped by a teammate in this race.

At lap thirty-five, after four laps behind the safety car, the safety car lights went out, and the race was about to restart.

As soon as Qin Miao noticed, he began warming up his tires again by alternately accelerating and braking.

Even though Qin Miao’s battery was fully charged at this point, Verstappen didn’t know that.

As his biggest rival at the moment, Qin Miao knew that he had to show weakness when necessary if he wanted to attack.

Whether it worked or not, he had to show his attitude.

After passing T16 and entering the third timing sector straight, Verstappen in front of Qin Miao began to weave left and right to warm up his tires, while the two Mercedes cars constantly accelerated-braked to warm theirs.

From the aerial view provided by the director, this scene looked quite amusing.

As the race organization gave the green flag sign, the race was about to restart, and it was up to Verstappen to decide when to accelerate.

Qin Miao fixed his eyes on Verstappen ahead, and without hesitation, unleashed his skills.

[Max Verstappen: Stress level 7%]

For the first three laps after the race resumed, DRS would not be available, so this was Qin Miao’s chance. If he could make his move at the start and pass Verstappen, he could rely on his tire advantage to pull Verstappen outside of his DRS zone before it was re-enabled.

However, everyone knew that the slipstream effect on this track was strong, and starting too early would be disadvantageous for the drivers at the front, so Verstappen was holding back to the limit.

Finally, Verstappen stopped weaving about 50 meters before the pit lane entrance and suddenly floored the throttle.

At the same time, it just so happened that Qin Miao had completed his braking and was pressing the throttle.

As seen from the aerial view, after Verstappen accelerated, Qin Miao not only didn’t get left behind but kept close to Verstappen, and after passing the start line, Qin Miao began to quickly close the gap with Verstappen.

However, this season’s cars were truly difficult to follow closely, and before the braking point at T1, Qin Miao could merely poke his nose into Verstappen’s inside line, with his front wheels reaching Verstappen’s rear wheels.

Even if Qin Miao wanted to brake later, he couldn’t gain track position.

Thus, Qin Miao didn’t attempt anything extravagant in this corner; he braked slightly earlier, positioned himself behind Verstappen, and exited with the best possible line.