How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 483 - 215: Dutch National Team

At this moment, Qin Miao suddenly realized a problem: he had been pushing too hard, and the tire wear was indeed beyond expectations.

The team must have already known this, but they didn’t tell Qin Miao.

Qin Miao could roughly guess the reason, after all, TR is shared.

So all Qin Miao could do at this moment was to remain calm, but his speed was noticeably starting to drop.

Behind the two, Perez was defending Hamilton with great difficulty.

In this race, Mercedes had two different rear wings: one with high downforce and one with low downforce. Both Qin Miao and Hamilton opted for the low downforce rear wing but set the angle higher.

Even so, Hamilton behind Perez was struggling to keep up, let alone find an opportunity to overtake Perez.

As the race settled into a calm state, after receiving the bad news, Qin Miao naturally couldn’t widen the gap with Verstappen as he wished.

In fact, on the 39th lap, on the second lap after opening the DRS, Qin Miao was overtaken by Verstappen on the straight.

Qin Miao, having been overtaken, didn’t exhibit any resistance.

There was no choice; the tires couldn’t hold up.

Just as they reached the 40th lap, the rankings at the front changed.

The current ranking is as follows:

1: Verstappen

2: Qin Miao

3: Perez

4: Hamilton

5: Vettel

Fortunately, Qin Miao’s long-distance pace was good, and Perez needed to fend off Hamilton’s fierce attacks from behind.

If at this time Perez sped up to chase down Qin Miao and started attacking, Perez’s speed would inevitably slow down, giving Hamilton an opportunity.

If Hamilton indeed seized the opportunity to overtake, it would be a loss not worth the gain.

So Perez didn’t act rashly.

Surprisingly, the rhythm at the front stabilized, and for the next period, there were no dramatic changes in position.

Everyone was conserving their tires.

On the 44th lap, Mazepin once again achieved being a second slower than his teammate on this track.

On the 46th lap, Qin Miao was already 2 seconds behind Verstappen.

The director, seeing that there was no battle between Qin Miao and Verstappen, switched the camera away from them and focused on Perez and Hamilton.

Compared to the relative peace between the two drivers in front, there was always a tense atmosphere between these two, with Hamilton occasionally feigning moves to tussle with Perez.

However, they never truly went head-to-head.

But just as these two came out of T19, the broadcast abruptly cut to an aerial shot.

On the opposite side of the pit lane entrance, a Red Bull car that had been running well suddenly crashed head-on into the right-side barrier on the track, skidding for tens of meters before coming to a stop.

The three commentators were taken aback and exclaimed, "Ah?! Verstappen!"

"What’s happening?"

"A blowout?"

"Qin Miao! Be careful!"

Verstappen is a professional racer, and the Red Bull car had been running stably for so many laps. It couldn’t be a mechanical failure or any other cause, so the only possibility for Verstappen to crash into the wall at this moment was a tire blowout.

And indeed, this was the case. From the first-person perspective of the driver closest to Verstappen, Qin Miao, Verstappen was still fine after T19.

But as he approached the pit exit, Verstappen’s left rear tire suddenly deflated.

With the loss of grip and support from the left rear tire, the balance of Verstappen’s car was instantly disrupted.

Verstappen, truly one of the top drivers, immediately tried to counter-steer to save the car after realizing something was wrong with the car’s stance. But on a race car traveling over 300 km/h, no amount of effort could change the outcome.

So Verstappen managed to keep the car relatively stable for about a second, during which time he attempted to regain control three times, but ultimately the car spun out of control and crashed into the right-side barrier of the track.

Then the car slid forward for dozens of meters, sending debris flying everywhere.

Qin Miao even saw the entire front wing of Verstappen’s car fly off.

This was the same footage the director replayed to the audience half a minute later. Qin Miao’s performance in this race aside, he surely qualified as a battlefield reporter.

Although Qin Miao was not far from Verstappen, just over two seconds away,

when he noticed Verstappen’s car starting to fishtail, Qin Miao changed lanes to the dirty side of the track.

So when Verstappen crashed, only a few tiny fragments and dust blew towards Qin Miao, posing no threat to Qin Miao’s car.

However, Verstappen’s crash indeed gave Qin Miao a shock.

Due to Verstappen’s crash, a yellow flag quickly appeared on track.

And soon, the yellow flag turned into a safety car.

Once the car stopped, Verstappen immediately started venting in the TR: "The tire! ****! *****! ****, ***!"

The director didn’t focus on Qin Miao or the other drivers at this moment, instead zeroing in on Red Bull’s pit and Verstappen.

After venting via TR, Verstappen angrily threw away his steering wheel and then climbed out of the car.