How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 935 370: The Second Yellow Flag (Part 2)

Qin Miao just got a little carried away wanting to continue attacking Verstappen ahead, not completely losing his sanity because he couldn't overtake him.So after hearing Frankie's words, Qin Miao's eyes immediately regained clarity.

"Roger that." Despite this, a trace of unwillingness could still be detected in Qin Miao's tone.

Frankie didn't say much more, and after confirming that Qin Miao's speed indeed decreased, he began to access Qin Miao's tire data and estimate how long these tires would last to prepare to advise Qin Miao at any time.

Lap 15, Perez caught up to within 0.9 seconds behind Qin Miao, and at this time, Qin Miao's tires were still fairly good, with about five laps left before reaching the cliff edge; his lap times were just 0.5 seconds slower than Perez.

But this gap was actually quite significant; given Qin Miao's current defensive skills, it would be somewhat challenging for him to hold off Perez's attack since the Albert Park Circuit is a fast track with many DRS zones.

If this time gap were reduced to 0.3 seconds, Qin Miao could directly shut down Perez.

However, due to the car's performance difference being evident, Qin Miao could only try his best to struggle.

But what Qin Miao didn't expect was, while Perez chased after him fiercely, once Perez got behind him and started attacking, the turbulent airflow and exhaust from his car surprisingly reduced Perez's speed, greatly reducing Qin Miao's pressure to defend!

Thinking about it closely, this wasn't without reason; Perez's tire set probably suffered quite a bit.

First, he was entangled with Hamilton, and then after that, he gave it his all to pursuit him, estimating that Perez's current set of medium tires wasn't left with much durability either.

Therefore, Qin Miao managed to stay ahead of Perez until his tires reached the cliff edge, allowing Perez to pass only when he pitted to change tires on lap 18.

By this time, Perez and Verstappen ahead had a 6-second time gap.

Would Qin Miao's defense against Perez increase his own tire wear? To the point where he could have stayed on track for a few extra laps?

Joking, as Zhou Haoran previously said, Qin Miao's set of C5 tires could last no more than 13 laps on the track, despite there being four laps in the safety car period. Tire wear was minor during such periods but not nonexistent, in addition to Qin Miao carrying full fuel while on track, pursuing Verstappen, and defending against Perez; all things considered, if Qin Miao used these soft tires normally, they'd run smoothly up to 22 laps.

Pitting at this time could only be considered a routine pit stop.

Once Qin Miao switched to medium tires and came out from the pit lane, he dropped to 10th, in front of Tsunoda, behind Bottas, and was 0.5 seconds behind Tsunoda and 2 seconds behind Bottas.

The team's pit stop was incredibly precise; had it been slightly slower, Qin Miao would've fallen behind Lord instead.

After exiting, Frankie, recalling Qin Miao's performance with soft tires in today's race, advised him once more: "If possible, protect this set of tires; unless something goes wrong, you'll need to use them until the end of the race."

Qin Miao naturally agreed wholeheartedly, but honestly speaking, once he was back on the track, he wasn't very sure about exactly what actions he might take.

Lap 20, Qin Miao closed in on Bottas by a second per lap, and when he caught up to Bottas, it was right in the DRS zone between T12 and T13.

After catching a wave of DRS hard, reaching the start-finish straight, Qin Miao simply and effortlessly overtook Bottas driving the Alfa Romeo car.

Indeed, this season Mercedes was underperforming; seeing the rear lights of Red Bull during race phases was hard enough, let alone Ferrari, with Leclerc leaving Verstappen 5 seconds behind.

But dealing with a weak Alfa Romeo was an easy task.

Bottas didn't defend against Qin Miao either, and simply let him through.

Qin Miao smoothly advanced to ninth.

Ahead in 8th was Gasly, 1.3 seconds away from Qin Miao.

Attacking Gasly was also a piece of cake; lap 21 Qin Miao overtook Gasly on the start-finish straight relying on DRS.

Compared to Bottas, Gasly's resistance was quite fierce; after all, he was part of Red Bull, and Qin Miao's speed now clearly posed a threat to Red Bull driver Perez's position.

But Gasly's resistance was futile; Qin Miao didn't engage in unnecessary banter, didn't even take the cross-line but purely relying on speed and an outside line, overtook Gasly.

Upon reaching lap 22, Qin Miao was a bit bewildered to find that Perez had been undercut by him?

Actually, Perez was quite helpless too; after Qin Miao pitted, his tires started struggling, resulting in Hamilton even running him down before he pitted.

So after Perez came out from the pit lane, ending up behind Qin Miao was perfectly normal.

What follows is interesting; Qin Miao was slicing through competitors ahead, and Perez, behind Qin Miao, was at about the same speed, also slicing through. It now depends on who slices through faster.

Yet, lap 23 marked the pit window for other drivers, and Qin Miao and Perez's competitors ahead opened their one-stop pit window.

By lap 23, Qin Miao was already in fifth, with unpitted Alonso ahead and Hamilton behind, with Perez trailing Hamilton.

Qin Miao somehow felt the situation behind him was familiar.

In the second timed sector of lap 23, Perez overtook Hamilton.

And shortly after overtaking Hamilton, a yellow flag appeared on the track again, quickly turning into a safety car.

When the camera cut over, it was found Vettel's car stopped on the track, but fortunately, he stopped in a place right before the pit lane entry, and from the exterior look, none of Vettel's car's wheels seemed visibly damaged, enabling Matthew to quickly get the car off the track.

...

This mistake from Vettel was indeed a bit unreasonable.

The mistake occurred at the exit of T4, where there was a relatively high curb outside the exit, and upon exiting, Vettel overdid it on the curb, causing his car's chassis to hit it, and before landing again, Vettel accelerated.

As a result, the car's rear wheels experienced brief spin, and upon touching down, the rear wheels lost grip completely.

This led to the car losing control and hitting the track's barrier.

Martin's car's front wing was knocked off on the spot, its debris scattered everywhere.

The race officials naturally sent out the safety car for Matthew to clean up the debris.

Alright, this time the drivers who hadn't pitted yet earned big.

Everyone got a free pit stop opportunity.

While those who'd just come out of the pit lane didn't even run a full lap, were probably dying inside at the moment.

Qin Miao, however, was calm, even eager; he was currently on medium tires, Verstappen and Leclerc on hard tires.

Once the pack compressed again, he'd have the chance to attack them.

He might not only have the chance to get on the podium but even win second place?

But as things went along, Qin Miao realized something was off; why hadn't Alonso ahead pitted yet? Clearly, he'd passed the pit lane entry just now...

A closer look at Alonso's tire choice: hard tire.

Upon asking in the team TR, everything became clear.

Alonso started the race on hard tires, and although the drivers who pitted once had already been through the pit lane, those on hard tires were just halfway through their journey, making pitting now unwise.