CHAPTER 540: CHAPTER 234: 51G WARNING

Of course, Sainz, who was stabbed in the back by the team, naturally complained on the team radio, but what he was truly cursing inside, no one knows.

After changing his tires, Leclerc came out 37 seconds behind Qin Miao.

The most critical point was that Qin Miao showcased Pirelli’s special tuning on the track once again.

At this moment, the set of medium tires on Qin Miao’s car had not been changed during the red flag like the other frontrunners. Qin Miao’s tires were the same old ones used since the race started, running one lap more on average than Hamilton’s.

Yet even so, Qin Miao maintained a lap speed of 1:31.7 with these tires, which had raced 31 laps, virtually without any drop-off.

Real Pirelli.

There were 22 laps remaining till the end of the race, and the three commentators from Five-Star Sports speculated whether Qin Miao would perform the extreme yellow-soft one-stop again.

Meanwhile, the Mercedes strategy team was somewhat puzzled.

Qin Miao’s tire degradation in the race was much slower than they anticipated. Typically, Qin Miao would open a pit window around lap 33, switching to much fresher hard tires and having superior grip out of the pits.

But given the current situation, if Qin Miao could hold on to lap 36, he could switch to soft tires when pitting.

Although normal drivers’ soft tires hit the cliff point after twelve laps at Silverstone, Qin Miao’s terrifying tire management and a reserved set of new soft tires made it possible for him to run the next 16 laps with them.

Of course, all this depended on whether Qin Miao could maintain his speed for that long.

Meanwhile, Hamilton, with increased engine power, had caught up to Norris and was preparing to attack him.

Actually, both Mercedes cars had this function, as did Qin Miao’s car, but considering the engine’s durability and stability, Qin Miao had not used it since joining Mercedes, except during winter testing.

Not even during qualifying had Qin Miao used it, mainly because it was too taxing on the engine, and its instability greatly increased when activated. This was also why Hamilton only activated it after one pit stop.

As Hamilton thought about his eighth home championship and a new historic record, he didn’t care if this would incur penalties for exceeding the engine usage limit at season’s end. The significance of a home race victory was different.

On the 31st lap, Hamilton easily passed Norris in the DRS zone of the starting straight and began chasing Leclerc ahead of him.

Although there was more than a 12-second gap between Hamilton and Leclerc, there was still a long way to go before the race ended, and the unrestricted Mercedes engine was indeed fast.

According to FIA statistics, although Hamilton and Leclerc were using similarly-timed hard tires, Hamilton was 0.7 seconds faster per lap than Leclerc.

Of course, this lap speed wasn’t stable, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but overall it was quicker.

And it was really possible to catch Leclerc before the race ended.

On the 33rd lap, Qin Miao received the team’s notification to pit on the 35th lap.

After receiving this message, Qin Miao, who had preserved his tires for more than half of the race, finally chose to unleash, consuming the tires without cost.

Because of this, Qin Miao clocked the fastest lap of the entire field before pitting, with a speed of 1:29.880, showing that his tire condition was still good.

Seeing Qin Miao’s time, the three commentators couldn’t help but exclaim, "1:29.8? No wonder he’s the newly crowned tire conservation master, it’s hard to believe this time was set on tires that have raced over thirty laps."

Zhou Haoran shook his head in amazement, "Qin Miao’s tire management has always been terrifying, but in today’s race, his protection of tires can truly be said to have reached the pinnacle."

Bing laughed and said, "I see online everyone keeps saying Qin Miao’s future is promising, but in this week’s British Grand Prix, Qin Miao’s stability and speed were the fastest in the paddock, even faster than his teammate Hamilton.

Promising future? No! The future is here now!"

...

On the 35th lap, Qin Miao pitted a lap earlier than the team initially expected. With 17 laps remaining, even with Qin Miao’s tire management skills, completing those 17 laps on a set of soft tires was a considerable challenge, but not impossible.

The moment Qin Miao entered the pit was highly anticipated by everyone in the paddock, as it was crucial to the subsequent direction of the race.

As mentioned earlier, Qin Miao regained his F2 race rhythm in this race. Although he didn’t pull away from the trailing drivers quickly like he did in F2, his lead in this race was never shaken.

With Qin Miao’s terrifying stability, the only variable in this race was this pit stop by Qin Miao.

If Qin Miao’s pit stop was smooth, the race victory was likely Qin Miao’s, but if there was an issue and he received a ten-second penalty like Sainz or Hamilton, then the race would become much more exciting.