CHAPTER 180: CHAPTER 118: QUALIFYING SESSION

After the qualifying round ended, the rankings were as follows:

First place: Zhou Guanyu: 1:14:416.

Second place: Qin Miao: +0.185.

Third place: Drogovich: +0.464

We’ll exclude the small fry at the back since they can’t earn any points anyway.

Seeing these results, the three commentators who broadcasted the entire qualifying round in the studio were quite pleased.

Not only did they witness the dominance of the two Chinese drivers taking the top two positions in the F2 qualifying round, but they also saw their fierce competition during the qualifying stage.

It was an enormous surprise for the three commentators, and from Zhou Haoran’s data, it’s clear that Qin Miao’s final speed was achieved using a set of soft tires that had already been used for eleven laps.

Which means, if Qin Miao had used a set of brand-new soft tires, the pole position might have been his.

What does this signify? Qin Miao is a genius! A true racing genius.

Meanwhile, many spectators following the F2 race were also exceptionally happy.

The excellent performance of Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu at the Red Bull Ring felt like a shot of adrenaline to their hearts, and they imagined that perhaps tomorrow a new historical moment might be born.

For example, the first Chinese driver to step onto the highest podium of F2, the first time two Chinese drivers simultaneously appeared on the F2 podium.

Thinking about these things, the F1 fans who were eagerly awaiting the emergence of an F1 driver from China were tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Aside from these people, there were Qin Miao’s mom at the computer screen, Qimeng with sweaty palms in the P room, Boss Zhou hanging up a projector and inviting a bunch of friends who also loved F1 to watch the F2 race together in his little store, and Yu Jialiang who had crossed paths with Qin Miao, along with classmates who knew Qin Miao went abroad to race in F2.

Upon witnessing Qin Miao’s performance, their faces were more or less adorned with expressions of joy, pride, happiness, excitement, jealousy, shock, or a sense of shared honor.

...

Unlike F1, F2 doesn’t give out small pole position tires after the race.

After the qualifying, all F2 teams simply packed up their things and made way for the F1 teams, as their second practice would start in an hour.

As soon as Qin Miao parked the car, he was surrounded by Roxin, Frankie, and Sui Wentao, who had been waiting for him.

Though they already had psychological expectations about Qin Miao’s strength, having seen his terrifying dominance in practice and knowing his remarkable tire-saving abilities, they realized that even using old soft tires, he could still achieve a decent result.

The expectation was to at least get fifth or sixth with those worn red tires, given the significant speed loss. But they hadn’t anticipated Qin Miao delivering such a big surprise.

Moreover, if Zhou Guanyu hadn’t performed phenomenally in the final stage, Qin Miao might have actually snagged first place using just old soft tires during qualifying.

So when Qin Miao stepped out of the car, they all gathered around him, celebrating excitedly.

After a brief celebration with the team members, they quickly returned to work.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao headed over to Zhou Guanyu’s team since his good friend clinched pole position in the first race of the year, even though the pole was snatched from him, Qin Miao genuinely felt happy for Zhou Guanyu and planned to congratulate him.

Tonight, he definitely intends to get Zhou Guanyu to treat him to dinner, having taken pole position and snatched two points from him.

When Qin Miao arrived at Zhou Guanyu’s team, Zhou had just parked the car in the repair area.

After all, Qin Miao had returned the car to the repair area before qualifying ended, so it was understandable for Zhou Guanyu to be a bit late.

Once Zhou celebrated briefly with his crew, Qin Miao walked over.

"Sorry, beat you by 0.2 seconds, I’ll be mindful next time." Zhou Guanyu approached Qin Miao as he arrived, but Qin Miao found his words quite irksome.

Qin Miao rolled his eyes, thinking if it weren’t for saving a set of soft tires for the sprint race, would he have allowed this brat to act so boldly?

The race strategies for both sprint and regular races are considered team secrets, and it was also undeniable that Zhou Guanyu’s speed today was faster than Qin Miao’s, so Qin Miao didn’t dwell on it, merely nodding helplessly before the two shook hands and hugged.

"You really are impressive, I’ll admit defeat today." Qin Miao said, "But wait for the race, watch how I defend against you."

This was a warning issued by a defense prowess rated at a top score of 100 by the system.

Upon hearing Qin Miao’s words, Zhou Guanyu recalled the somewhat unpleasant memories when Qin Miao stayed at his house and they played simulators together.

In football, there’s a saying, there’s no obstacle you can’t overcome, except for Kante.

Zhou Guanyu realized during that time that if Qin Miao didn’t want you to overtake him, no matter how you tried from behind, you wouldn’t find an opening to overtake.

Sitting nearby playing CSGO, Qimeng heard this and suspiciously stared at Zhou Guanyu for a while, then threatened, "You both better really be talking about racing..."

Remembering Qimeng’s predatory stare, Zhou Guanyu couldn’t help but shiver.

Suddenly realizing, he switched from his smug expression to a gentle smile: "Miao, you and I are close, just kidding around, don’t take it to heart."

Qin Miao folded his arms: "I lost the pole."

Zhou Guanyu quickly caught on: "I’m treating tonight, haha."

...

After some bantering, the two drivers returned to their teams’ temporary P rooms.

Though Qin Miao performed well, during the time following the qualifying, he was pulled by Roxin to review the day’s qualifying round.

Rather than Roxin reviewing with Qin Miao, it seemed Roxin was using Qin’s performance to pressure Mick Schumacher from the same team.

During the review, both drivers were present, but Roxin merely glanced at Qin Miao’s recorded qualifying, then proceeded with a public analysis against Mick Schumacher.

It wasn’t necessarily penalizing, it was more about displaying Mick’s in-car footage to the crew while highlighting his mistakes.

The truly painful part was while pointing out Mick’s errors, they simultaneously displayed Qin’s single-lap footage from qualifying for comparison.

If you didn’t excel in school but knew of a peer or a neighbor with excellent grades, you’d likely understand Mick’s feelings at this moment.

While Roxin elaborated enthusiastically, Qin Miao involuntarily started spacing out, considering Roxin discussed things Qin Miao already knew, or else he wouldn’t have achieved such impressive results with old soft tires.

Roxin could easily notice Qin Miao daydreaming from his position, since the look and facial expression differed distinctly between attentive listening and spacing out. Yet he didn’t intervene.

After racing hard in qualifying, Qin Miao relaxed during the meeting. What was the harm?

Sui Wentao, seated beside Qin Miao, suddenly nudged him.

When Qin Miao glanced over, Sui gestured him to look at Mick.

Turning his head, Qin Miao realized how genuinely foul-faced Mick was, as Sui Wentao had previously described to him.

Thankfully, Mick’s public analysis wasn’t too prolonged, just half an hour, before Roxin wrapped it up and explained the tactics the team’s strategies group planned for tomorrow’s main race stage.

Qin Miao would start on soft tires, aiming to overtake Zhou Guanyu early for the lead position. After securing the lead, he should leverage his long-distance pace advantage to widen the gap, and maintain that pace till the race ends.

If unable to outpace Zhou, Qin Miao should use his defensive abilities to hold his position.

Several contingency plans were also prepared for other scenarios.

Mick would start with the same tires as Qin Miao, and his qualifying ended placing sixth.

Despite third-row starts not being too slow, compared to teammate Qin Miao, Mick had considerable room for improvement.

Roxin’s expectation for Mick in the main race was simply reaching the podium, whereas Qin Miao was expected to secure second and aim for first.

After concluding, Prema Racing’s pre-race meeting was adjourned, and everyone dispersed to rest.