CHAPTER 541: CHAPTER 234: 51G WARNING (PART 2)

The originally relentless battle between Leclerc and Hamilton will now see the introduction of Qin Miao as a third party.

Honestly, Qin Miao has great trust in his colleagues, after working together for so long and having pleasant conversations daily.

However, the final result of this race affects Qin Miao’s subsequent race results and numerous rewards, so even though Qin Miao trusts them greatly, he still feels a bit nervous during the pit stop.

After all, unlike racing on the track, a pit stop for a tire change feels like handing over all the efforts of the race to his colleagues, which is an uncontrollable process.

But this is something he must go through, and even though Qin Miao wasn’t mentally prepared, he knew this day would come sooner or later.

Qin Miao exited T17, turned right, and entered the pit lane.

Before crossing the pit lane white line, he controlled the car’s speed under 78 km/h.

After crossing the white line, he initiated the pit stop procedure, maintaining a speed of 79.9 km/h all the way to the Mercedes pit stop position.

Having practiced the pit stop process hundreds and thousands of times, Qin Miao could stop his car precisely at the designated spot with nearly eyes closed.

As precisely as a machine, he parked the car at the specified position, and the next thing Qin Miao could do was to take his hands off the steering wheel and pray fervently that the team of engineers wouldn’t make any blunders.

The car was lifted by the front and rear jacks, engineers quickly wiped the front wing of Qin Miao’s car, removing dust from the front nose, and replaced the four old medium tires with shiny new soft tires.

With the roar of the air guns, Qin Miao felt a moment of weightlessness and then landed back on the ground.

Although Qin Miao didn’t know how long the tire change took exactly, he could confirm that nothing unexpected happened during the process.

As soon as he landed, Qin Miao accelerated out of the stopping position.

And after Qin Miao exited, amidst the fist-bumping celebrations of the Mercedes technicians, the screen’s bottom right corner displayed the total time for Qin Miao’s pit stop: [2.8 seconds]

This result wasn’t particularly fast but certainly acceptable, and the time Qin Miao had previously gained proved useful at this moment.

Once Qin Miao came out, he was 7 seconds ahead of Leclerc and 18 seconds ahead of teammate Hamilton.

There were 17 laps left in the race, and if Hamilton wanted to catch up with Qin Miao, he would need to gain at least 1.3 seconds per lap in the remaining race.

From the current situation, at his home British Grand Prix, Hamilton was utterly suppressed by his teammate Qin Miao, from qualifying to the sprint qualifying and now the main race.

Seeing this scene, many British spectators began cursing at Qin Miao, don’t you know this is a crucial time for Hamilton’s pursuit of an eighth title before this year’s major regulation changes?

Can’t you give your teammate a little leeway? Back when you first joined F1, Hamilton was willing to teach you everything, and this is how you repay the mentor who supported you?

But at this moment, Qin Miao couldn’t hear the voices of the British spectators.

Moreover, strictly speaking, Qin Miao being in this position had nothing to do with anyone else; he achieved it through his own strength. As for Hamilton behind him, it really wasn’t Qin Miao’s fault; it was just an unintended mistake by Qin Miao that gave Leclerc a slight DRS advantage, and without even a reminder from the team, Qin Miao was already preparing to move away.

Besides, once Qin Miao was out of the picture, Leclerc was continuously held up by Hamilton till now.

This proves that if Hamilton didn’t manage to overtake Leclerc, it was Hamilton’s own issue, having nothing to do with Qin Miao.

Of course, part of the reason was that the turbulent air this season affected the following drivers quite a bit.

And Silverstone has many medium to high-speed corners, under such corners any turbulence makes it difficult for a following car to pick up speed.

Nevertheless, after Qin Miao’s uneventful pit stop, the outcome of this race was virtually decided, and the director immediately started calculating on the left side of the spectators’ screen the points drivers would get after this race and their rankings after adding the points from this Grand Prix.

Without a doubt, after this race, Qin Miao would again lead the driver’s standings, Hamilton’s position unchanged, while Verstappen would drop to third due to scoring no points in this race.

The only variable on the track at this time was Qin Miao’s set of soft tires.

On lap 42, Hamilton began to attack Leclerc ahead of him, gaining about 1.1 seconds per lap from Leclerc.

And Qin Miao’s tires, though being soft, maintained speed despite being managed cautiously, showcasing the inherent speed of soft tires, thus extending the lead over Leclerc to 10 seconds.

So by now, no one paid attention to Qin Miao; everyone focused on the chase between Hamilton and Leclerc.

Although aware that Mercedes’ Hamilton was pursuing him, Ferrari instructed Leclerc to adjust his car’s engine to high-power mode, but the car’s performance gap wasn’t something the change of a system mode could cover.

After all, Mercedes’ engine had the speed but lacked reliability, leading to reduced power, whereas Ferrari’s engine initially couldn’t match Mercedes’.

And with the full release of the Mercedes engine, Hamilton was consistently gaining over 1.1 seconds per lap on Leclerc.

By lap 46, Hamilton was 4 seconds behind Leclerc, with six laps remaining in the race.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao’s speed started to decline, but not significantly. Although not as fast as Hamilton, Qin Miao had built enough of a lead before the tire degradation, leaving Hamilton unable to close the gap before the race ended.

By lap 48, Hamilton was 1.5 seconds behind Leclerc, where Hamilton started to feel slight understeering during corners, primarily caused by the loss of downforce due to turbulent air from the front car.

However, the good news for Hamilton was that his straight-line speed exceeded Leclerc’s, coupled with the tow from the front car, as long as Hamilton maintained the gap during corners without letting Leclerc extend the lead, he could quickly close the gap to Leclerc on the straights with the better performance of his car.

On lap 49, Hamilton gained another 0.5 seconds on Leclerc; it was noticeable that Hamilton’s speed had slowed compared to earlier, reflecting that while chasing Leclerc in clean air, Hamilton could gain over a second per lap.

Exiting T17 on the same lap, Hamilton was within a second behind Leclerc and obtained DRS.

On lap 50, Hamilton decided to make his move on Leclerc.

Interestingly, Hamilton attacked at the same place at the start of the race where he made his move on Verstappen, at T9.

Coincidentally, similar to his move on Verstappen, Hamilton again inserted himself on the inside line of the car ahead.

Leclerc, evidently watched Hamilton and Verstappen’s collision under the red flag, recognized the corner he was in, and seeing Hamilton’s inside line maneuver and his intent to close in, Leclerc felt a wave of panic within.

He definitely didn’t want to experience Verstappen’s 51G impact equivalent.

Due to fears and panic, Leclerc’s lines entering and exiting the corner were off, and he ran wide, going off track while exiting the corner.

Although Leclerc eventually stabilized the car back on track, he couldn’t hold onto his position.

You could certainly say Leclerc ran off track out of fright, no question about it.