CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 74: ONLY STRENGTH CAN BREAK THROUGH!

Matsuboto Brown on the track had already learned his lap time for the second lap from race engineer Mizutani Sho.

As a student of the Honda Racing Academy, he naturally understood what this lap time meant, though in some sense it was not entirely secure.

Only by running under 2 minutes 25 seconds himself could he be completely assured of victory in advance.

Thinking of this, a smile appeared on Matsuboto Brown’s face, which had been tense all along.

At this moment, he was filled with confidence in his driving skills, feeling that the difficulty of rain driving was not as great as imagined, and improving the lap time by more than two seconds was not impossible.

In the third lap, Matsuboto Brown’s speed increased steadily, and the lines he took through many corners became increasingly bold. He intended to push with all his might this lap to break into the 2 minutes 25 seconds, directly declaring "death sentence" to that Chinese guy!

The split timing on the wall-mounted screen in the pit revealed that Matsuboto Brown had already improved by a full second in the first half of the lap compared to the previous lap. Judging by the layout of the circuit, which had primarily high-speed corners in the latter half, he could likely achieve even faster speeds.

"Looks like Matsuboto-san is serious now; this is him going all out."

"Being able to run under 2 minutes 25 seconds in the first rain track training is indeed impressive."

"I wonder who’s actually faster between Matsuboto-san and Hoshino-san."

In the pit, the racing academy participants completely forgot about Chen Xiangbei, simply discussing Matsuboto Brown’s prowess.

After all, a Chinese rookie destined to be eliminated had no place in the discussion, nor did it hold any significance for mockery.

Not only the racing academy participants but even the Honda Team members in the pit had shifted their focus away from Chen Xiangbei’s wager, all showing expressions of admiration toward Matsuboto Brown.

This 16-year-old Formula rookie exhibited excellent adaptability and potential during his first rain track outing, showing promise for a bright future if he maintained this performance!

Matsuboto Brown quickly approached turns 12 and 13 on the circuit. The simple turn 12 was a long, curved high-speed right turn, posing no real difficulty.

However, turn 13 was a small angle left turn with no straight road connecting and transitioning between them, requiring the driver to brake throughout the corner and change lanes continuously to hit both apexes for a perfect pass through.

Imagine the feeling of driving at high speed on a wet surface, while simultaneously braking and changing lanes to enter the corner?

If you can’t picture it, recall that phrase your driving school instructor often emphasized: when driving on a highway in rain, don’t hastily change lanes, and definitely don’t turn your steering wheel while braking, as doing so can cause immediate loss of control!

Having trained at the Suzuka Circuit for over a month, Matsuboto Brown naturally knew how to handle these two corners, but achieving trail braking in the rain required extremely precise control over brake pressure.

The reason for this is that rainwater can create a lubrication layer on the track, causing braking distances to increase by 30 to 50 percent.

It’s like playing the computer game Kart Rider, where one day the drift distance is suddenly increased by 30 percent, causing absolute discomfort and crashes everywhere.

Matsuboto Brown now faced this issue; trying to break through lap times with trail braking, he found that the speed was still showing signs of not braking enough through the corners.

He had no choice but to apply heavy brakes, but the braking power of a Formula car is so intense that exceeding the critical limit can cause tire lock instantly!

If rain tires lock, it means the inability to channel away water through rotation and tread patterns, forming a layer of water between the road surface and the wheels, making the racecar completely lose grip.

"It’s over."

Sawano Hiroyuki quietly uttered this phrase at the moment he saw a change in the brake curve, as Matsuboto Brown ultimately failed to control "losing control."

Just as Sawano Hiroyuki had anticipated, at the moment Matsuboto Brown stepped on the brakes, the racecar immediately began to tailspin and slid uncontrollably off the track, getting stuck in the gravel buffer zone outside the curb.

The emergence of this scene directly stunned the pit members; no one expected the accident to come so suddenly.

Even Matsuboto Brown himself was at a loss in the cockpit; he hadn’t imagined he would shoot off the track, nor did he foresee that in rain, once exceeding the racecar’s critical limit, total loss of control would occur defenselessly.

In a certain sense, this is the allure of a rain race; you never know whether victory or loss of control will come first.

"Go push Matsuboto’s car back; 2 minutes 27 seconds 691 is his fastest lap time."

Sawano Hiroyuki broke the silence in the pit; rain race loss of control is a common scenario, only proving Matsuboto Brown doesn’t have the strength to run under 2 minutes 25 seconds.

Though even so, for the Chinese rookie to run a lap time of 2 minutes 22 seconds 691 remains impossible; forcefully pushing at full speed only results in replicating the scene of shooting off the track!

"Chen Xiangbei, get in the car and drive."

"Yes, Director Sawano."

When replying to this, Chen Xiangbei secretly sighed in relief.

It’s known that under normal circumstances, the lap time for full wet tires in F1 is 15 to 20 seconds slower than slick tires.

The Renault car, due to its lower speed limit, has a lap time difference between slick and wet tires within 15 seconds theoretically.

If Matsuboto Brown really ran 2 minutes 25 seconds, then it would mean Chen Xiangbei would need to run under 2 minutes 20 seconds to win.

To be honest, Chen Xiangbei didn’t have absolute confidence in achieving this lap time.