CHAPTER 535: CHAPTER 232: VERSTAPPEN RETIRES FROM THE RACE

Barber explained, "Hamilton and Verstappen collided while entering the Copse corner. Verstappen hit the wall while Hamilton’s car didn’t have much of a problem. I can’t explain the other details, you should just go to the team command post and watch the replay."

With nothing else to do, after hearing Barber’s suggestion, Qin Miao handed his equipment to Barber and took a cooling ice vest from Barber’s multifunctional backpack to put on, before heading to the Mercedes team command post.

After greeting Frankie, Frankie pulled up the recent footage for Qin Miao.

After watching it, from a driver’s perspective, Qin Miao thought that both of them were at fault.

Hamilton, without the right of way, didn’t leave space for Verstappen, choosing to squeeze inside, trying to push Verstappen out.

But Verstappen was also stubborn, not paying attention to Hamilton behind him after exiting the corner, and started accelerating after passing the apex.

Their mutual unwillingness to give way ultimately led to this serious on-track accident.

During this time, Red Bull engineers also arrived beside Verstappen’s paralyzed car on the track to assess the damage.

And were responsible for handling the car remains and confidentiality work.

After confirming the collision process and knowing that Verstappen was not seriously injured, Qin Miao didn’t concern himself further.

Even though the crash was indeed very dangerous, a slight deviation could have meant that Verstappen might not have been able to walk out of the car on his own, as he just did.

But speaking selfishly, the race has to continue, and Verstappen’s retirement was actually good news for Qin Miao.

Patting Frankie’s shoulder, and greeting the other Mercedes staff at the command post, Qin Miao went to the team’s P room.

Even though there was a lot of data at the command post, there was just as much in the P room, plus it had air conditioning, and didn’t take up other staff’s seats. Most importantly, his wife was in the team’s P room.

When Qin Miao returned to the team’s P room, he saw Qimeng sitting in his usual spot waiting for the race to start, wearing team-specific noise-canceling headphones.

When she saw Qin Miao return, Qimeng didn’t seem surprised, but waited until Qin Miao was in front of her before curiously asking, "Brother, from your understanding, how do you think the FIA will penalize this accident?"

Even though it’s not very suitable for the two of them to discuss this in the current setting, Qimeng asked Qin Miao in Chinese, and even in their hometown dialect, so they didn’t have to worry about being overheard.

Even though there are quite a few foreigners who understand and can speak Chinese now, there are hardly any in racing who can, not to mention the fact they were speaking the distinctly different Hunan dialect.

"I don’t know, but if I were a race official, an accident on the first lap of the race is a normal on-track incident and I’d issue no penalty.

But if viewed from a driver’s perspective, I’d wish to penalize Hamilton with twenty seconds and a pit lane drive-through." Qin Miao leaned against the cabinet beside Qimeng.

Qimeng smiled helplessly, "I think you wish Hamilton could be directly disqualified."

Qin Miao didn’t put on an act, and after Qimeng said that, Qin Miao nodded and admitted frankly, "That’s right, I’ve thought about it, but clearly that’s not realistic."

"Don’t think too much, just run your own pace and aim to get the championship back." Qimeng raised her little fist to encourage him.

Qin Miao nodded, then curiously asked, "Where’s Toto?"

Qimeng said, "The moment Hamilton and Verstappen crashed, he went out, probably to find FIA officials to negotiate since there’s quite a lot of room for penalty adjustment in this matter."

Qin Miao nodded upon hearing this, then chatted idly with Qimeng while waiting for the race to restart.

About half an hour later, they received notification from the race committee that the restart time was at 3:45 PM.

By this time Toto had also returned to the Mercedes team’s P room.

Toto first talked to Hamilton to calm his emotions, and then he found Qin Miao.

Qin Miao initially thought that Toto came to ask him to slightly concede to Hamilton during the race, or perhaps even to block Leclerc to give Hamilton a chance to catch up, but Toto patted Qin Miao’s arm and said, "In the upcoming race, just run your own pace. I don’t want to see the same incident between you two on track."

Toto’s words carried some deeper meaning, but Qin Miao didn’t understand.

So Qin Miao only grasped the superficial meaning that Toto didn’t want to see both himself and Hamilton retire together or anyone retire due to a scuffle over positions, thus Qin Miao assured him, "Rest assured, my defense knows its limits."

After hearing Qin Miao’s words, Toto smiled and encouraged him a few more words, and then it was almost time, so Qin Miao got back into his race car.

Although the race hadn’t restarted yet, it wasn’t long before the start.

The 5-minute countdown in the lower right corner of the screen began its countdown.

In the long wait, the countdown reached zero.

The indicator light in front of Qin Miao turned green, so Qin Miao drove his car onto the track behind the safety car.