CHAPTER 520: CHAPTER 227: OLD LONDON AND THE UNION JACK (6K, BONUS UPDATE 11/19) (PART 3)

The weather today is quite good, with a temperature of 25°C, track temperature at 40°C, humidity at 54%, and a mild south wind blowing.

Although the track temperature for today’s race is not very ideal, affecting tire grip to a certain extent, both the teams and drivers have already considered this during practice sessions.

To some extent, today’s qualifying race will be relatively easy to run because there is no wind today.

With no wind interference, drivers can focus more on their lap times.

Moreover, there are quite a few spectators today, as many as 80,000, and the visible stands are basically fully occupied, with almost no one wearing masks.

Despite this, before the qualifying race started, Qin Miao still saw quite a few Chinese people wearing Mercedes team uniforms during the pre-race activities.

There were also domestic VIPs in the pre-race activities.

Qin Miao and Hamilton both finished wearing their gear about two minutes before the race started, entered their respective cars, and secured themselves.

Sitting in his own car, Qin Miao happened to see the spectators on the opposite stand.

It’s worth mentioning that the opposite stand was surrounded by Hamilton’s fans; everyone opposite was Hamilton’s fans, wearing unified black and blue uniforms. Before the qualifying race started, they directly raised a large portrait sign of Hamilton at an angle directly facing the doors of Qin Miao and Hamilton’s P rooms.

And because of the angle, this sign could only be fully visible from inside Hamilton and Qin Miao’s P rooms, but from beside Mercedes team’s P rooms looking from Red Bull team, it might only be half visible.

But Qin Miao slightly frowned when he saw this large portrait.

The scene of yesterday’s pre-race press conference flashed before his eyes.

At that time, Qin Miao didn’t think much of it, even if he noticed Tsunoda and Perez’s low spirits, he thought it was just that the two drivers had encountered something unpleasant.

But upon careful reminiscence, did the three people attend the press conference have anything in common?

The answer is simple, these three people were not Europeans, to put it bluntly, these three people were not Caucasians.

Two Asians, one South American.

So if you think darkly, this is blatant discrimination and arrogance by the elderly gentlemen of Old London with their Union Jack.

Now seeing the British fans at the scene light up Hamilton’s portrait in front of him.

Although it might just be Qin Miao’s imagination, yesterday’s event might purely be a coincidence, but Qin Miao just feels like the British audience on site is hinting at him.

[You, Qin Miao, are just a newcomer; you must realize your status within the Mercedes team. A Number Two driver should do what a Number Two driver does, not aim too high and think about unrealistic things.]

To be honest, Qin Miao’s fists hardened.

Now it’s not only because of the system-given task, but also because Qin Miao really wants to give these arrogant British gentlemen a small Chinese shock.

It’s no longer the Victorian Era; the Sun Never Sets Empire has long since declined.

However, Qin Miao is not easily affected by external factors. Even if there are obvious emotions, once seated in the race car, Qin Miao can control his inner emotions well.

Buff up his race car, and after the qualifying race started, Qin Miao drove out of the garage under Reyes’ command to start his qualifying race today.

Due to the qualifying race format revision, all teams no longer lack tire usage during the qualifying race stage, and the tire for tomorrow’s sprint qualifying race is also self-selected, meaning all three sessions of today’s qualifying race can use soft tires without reservation.

Qin Miao’s first flying lap out was on brand new soft tires.

Because the Silverstone Circuit has many high-speed corners, coupled with the heavy load of the Mercedes, one lap during the qualifying race was enough for Qin Miao to get his tire temperature up.

Since all drivers only ran one practice session, although everyone was pushing at the start of the qualifying race, they all unconsciously held back a little.

After all, while familiar, not every team gets the chance to run their cars at Silverstone for data every day.

With so many upgraded parts installed, no one can be sure whether the characteristics of the cars have changed due to the performance changes.

Also, the practice session time is very limited, and all teams can’t ensure they get all the desired data in that one-hour practice.

So during the Q1 phase of the qualifying race, except for the drivers from Haas, Williams, and Alfa Romeo doing their utmost right from the start, the leading group’s few drivers were gradually probing how the cars perform under today’s track conditions.

On Friday, the three commentators of Five-Star Sports also resumed their broadcast after a long break.

Actually, in accordance with Five-Star Sports’ previous live broadcast rhythm, the three commentators at most broadcast the F1 qualifying race and the main race.

But now is different from the past.

There is a Chinese driver on the F1 stage, and this Chinese driver has performed outstandingly since entering F1.

Thus, the ratings for Five-Star Sports’ F1 segment have skyrocketed, sometimes reaching 20% of the local viewership.

In the declining state of television media, such a terrifying rating shows how strong Qin Miao’s influence is at home now.