readytorunbook Chapter 1218 - 459: Conquest
Chapter 1218 - 459: Conquest
However, during today’s post-race podium ceremony, listening to this familiar national anthem, Qin Miao felt mostly pride.He conquered the Suzuka Circuit! Let his nation’s anthem soar on Japanese soil, and everyone had to watch, no matter how displeased they might be, they had to watch.
The award ceremony after the race is generally conducted by a local official or a person with significant influence.
Today’s Japanese Grand Prix was no exception.
When Qin Miao received the trophy handed over by a high-ranking Japanese official he didn’t know, he saw a hint of anger in the other’s smile.
This old man’s smile was fake!
However, Qin Miao didn’t care. Before the man could walk away, Qin Miao raised his trophy high and pointed at the national flag on his belt with his other hand.
For a moment, many Japanese officials’ smiles stiffened.
Next came the celebration.
Let’s not go into too much detail here.
Soon, as the celebration’ melody slowly faded away, the broadcast showed the race rankings and score situation:
P1: Qin Miao +25
P2: Hamilton +18
P3: Verstappen +15
P4: Leclerc +13 (fastest lap)
P5: Perez +10
P6: O’Kang +8
P7: Vettel +6
P8: Zhou Guanyu +4
P9: Alonso +2
P10: Norris +1
In theory, today’s race only saw the drivers running 29 laps, nowhere near half the course.
According to FIA regulations, the scoring for all drivers should be halved after such a race.
But after this race ended, the FIA awarded full points to all drivers.
For a moment, all the teams and drivers were a bit puzzled.
Ultimately, the FIA explained that the reduced score rule only applies to races interrupted by red flags without subsequent restart, but today’s race eventually restarted, so full points were given.
The FIA isn’t just grabbing for the Super License entry fee from drivers due to the points.
Such unclear situations regarding FIA race regulations are not new, and many teams and drivers are familiar with it, after all, that’s the inept and worthless FIA.
Besides, today’s race saw Vettel winning the Best Driver vote from all the spectators.
Vettel encountered an accident at the start, directly falling to the back of the pack.
Yet, under such circumstances, Vettel didn’t give up the race, managing to fight his way to seventh position in the relatively short race process.
With such performance, Vettel rightfully deserved being named Best Driver.
And Zhou Guanyu, though unable to defend against Vettel’s attacks in the later stages of today’s race, ultimately finished eighth after starting ninth.
This occurred even during the season’s final stages, with Alfa Romeo’s car performance already clearly lagging behind other teams in the same class, making Zhou Guanyu’s result commendable.
Alfa Romeo was very satisfied with this, and Vassel especially praised Zhou Guanyu’s performance during today’s race in a post-race interview.
Meanwhile, the drivers’ total rankings following this race are as follows:
1: Qin Miao.333
2: Verstappen.285
3: Leclerc.229
4: Perez.216
5: Hamilton.172
6: Sainz.159
7: Norris.83
8: O’Kang.72
9: Alonso.39
10: Bottas.38
11: Vettel.26
12: Zhou Guanyu.25
13: Gasly.21
14: Ricardo.20
15: Magelsen.19
16: Tsunoda.9
17: Stroll.7
18: Mick.6
19: Albon.1
20: Russell.1
21: De Vries.1
After this race, Qin Miao’s lead over Verstappen has reached 48 points.
Yet despite this, Verstappen still has a chance to overtake Qin Miao at the season’s end.
After all, looking at the speed of the two drivers’ cars now, Verstappen’s Red Bull remains superior in performance to Mercedes’ car.
Meanwhile, because of Sainz’s retirement on the track, his ranking in the driver standings dropped from 5th to 6th, whereas Hamilton rose to 5th.
Next is the team’s total points standings:
1: Mercedes: 548
2: Red Bull: 521
3: Ferrari: 408
4: Alpine: 129
5: McLaren: 107
6: Alfa Romeo: 70
7: Aston Martin: 34
8: AlphaTauri: 30
9: Haas: 25
10: Williams: 3
The points gap between Mercedes and Red Bull teams further widened due to Mercedes’ drivers finishing first and second.
But now Red Bull still has a chance to fight back.
At the post-race press conference, after the routine questions, Qin Miao was naturally asked by reporters about Gasly’s issue.
After all, apart from Mercedes’ one-two finish, Gasly’s incident on the track attracted much attention.
Not only Qin Miao, but Hamilton and Verstappen beside him were also asked the same question.
The three drivers quickly reached a consensus on this issue.
No matter the reason of FIA, what happened at Bianqi’s accident site is wrong; isn’t the consequence of Bianqi’s death severe enough?
FIA must provide a reasonable explanation for this.
However, FIA did not respond to this matter immediately, instead imposed a 20-second penalty on Gasly and deducted two Super License points.
The given reason was also extremely humorous: Gasly was speeding during the red flag period.
But Gasly’s attention at that time was entirely on the crane beside his car and didn’t notice the sudden red flag on the track.