How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 489 - 217: Flowers and Applause

However, during the race, Mercedes’ car exposed a number of issues, the most serious being the excessive drag on high-speed tracks.

Even someone as strong as Hamilton found it difficult to break through when facing Red Bull driver Perez ahead of him.

After being let down by the team, Hamilton became completely dejected in the latter part of the race.

But these problems are for the team to deal with after the race; they don’t match the current atmosphere.

"You did great today too, no matter how fast I was, I never really left you behind." Facing Perez’s compliment, Qin Miao responded.

After exchanging a few more words with Perez, Qin Miao turned and went to find Vettel.

However, while walking, Qin Miao was stopped by a red figure.

"Congratulations." Leclerc came up to Qin Miao and gave him a hug.

"Hahaha, wasn’t I awesome, buddy?" In front of his friend, Qin Miao was less reserved, the excitement and joy of winning all written on his face.

"Awesome." Leclerc sincerely offered his blessings to his friend.

After that, Leclerc and Qin Miao went over to Vettel together.

Qin Miao went due to the normal social etiquette among colleagues, it was necessary to go over and say hello to Vettel after the race.

Leclerc went because he was Vettel’s former teammate and since he was there, he naturally needed to congratulate him on his good performance.

After celebrating for a while, the first segment came to an end.

At this time, the broadcast director coincidentally cut the camera to Hamilton’s side. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

At this moment, Hamilton remained sitting in his car, not getting out for a long time.

Hamilton was extremely upset inside, feeling like all the cheers and clamor from the outside world were drifting far away from him, leaving him sitting alone in the cockpit.

In fact, the only person in the paddock who could empathize with Hamilton was Verstappen, who had crashed out of the race.

But comparing Hamilton to Verstappen, the person who felt worse was actually Hamilton.

Both lost their chances to finish the race and claim victory.

Verstappen’s wasn’t his fault; he was just running when his tire blew. It wasn’t his problem and he could vent all his dissatisfaction on Pirelli.

Hamilton’s situation was different; he went off the track entirely because of mistakenly pressing a button and his own operational issues. He could only blame himself no matter how bad he felt.

The race’s end under these two conditions brought different results and feelings.

That’s why Hamilton was deeply self-reproachful at that moment, if not for wearing a helmet, he might have slapped his own face twice.

However, since FIA needed to conduct an inspection, Hamilton didn’t linger in the car very long, he calmed himself a bit and got out.

Meanwhile, the three drivers needed to start doing interviews.

Vettel was the first to be interviewed.

While Vettel was being interviewed, Qin Miao had already completed weighing and was standing nearby drinking water waiting for Vettel’s interview to finish.

At that moment, Hamilton slowly appeared in Vettel’s background, passing by the advertising board.

Qin Miao knew his teammate’s plight during the race today, so after seeing his teammate looking a bit down, he walked over.

"Lewis."

Hamilton saw Qin Miao walking over, his expression unchanged, though he hadn’t taken off his helmet, so he didn’t need to do much with his face anyway.

"Qin Miao, you did great today." Despite feeling awful, Old Man managed to muster a congratulatory sentence for his teammate.

However, Qin Miao didn’t approach Old Man for compliments, though he was not good at comforting people, so he just said, "Look on the bright side, Verstappen also didn’t score any points today."

Seeing Qin Miao’s somewhat clumsy way of comforting, Hamilton paused, then patted Qin Miao on the shoulder, saying, "I know, thank you, Qin Miao, now you should go and enjoy your victory."

After that, Old Man took his gear to the FIA officials for weighing.

After Qin Miao finished talking with Hamilton, it was Perez’s turn for the interview.

Today’s race was solid for Perez, and after six races, he’s fully familiar with the Red Bull car, no longer unable to support his teammate Verstappen like in previous races, leaving Verstappen to fend off both Mercedes alone.

Mercedes also knew this point, believing it will be harder for their two drivers to contain Red Bull in the future.

However, whether for race commentary, audience, or FIA, this was welcome news because it would make the races more exciting.

After Perez’s interview, it was Qin Miao’s turn.

Since he had just seen his teammate score nothing due to a simple error, Qin Miao’s expression wasn’t particularly joyful, just a faint smile.

There would surely be post-race celebrations, but bursting out in joy right now just wasn’t appropriate.