CHAPTER 553: CHAPTER 240: HENGELO MISSILE BASE (RED BULL SPECIAL EDITION) (PART 2)

However, this is competitive sports. If you make a mistake and your opponent does not, you have to pay the price.

But what Qin Miao didn’t expect was that Norris’s start was ridiculously fast. Not only did he overtake Qin Miao before entering T1, but he also smoothly overtook Perez.

Upon seeing this scene, Qin Miao suddenly remembered.

The traction on the dirty side of a dry track is poor mainly because the asphalt there has some minor bumps and irregularities. On such a surface, the tire traction cannot be fully utilized.

But it’s different in the rain. Because it’s raining, these minor bumps actually increase the traction of the vehicle.

No one goes to the dirty side during the race purely because the speed advantage from the traction doesn’t outweigh the benefits of sticking to the normal racing line.

However, during the start, Norris happened to be on the dirty side and his grip was stronger than Qin Miao’s.

So the audience clearly saw Norris overtaking both Qin Miao and Perez directly from the inside line.

After overtaking the two, Norris wasn’t in a good position for the corner, but taking the outside line would make it easy for Perez to brake late from the inside and block him.

So after overtaking Perez, Norris moved directly in front of Perez’s car, leaving less than 2 meters between the two cars.

We all know, this season’s cars, due to the influence of turbulent flow, lose more than 60% downforce when following closely.

And today it’s raining, the track is wet and slippery, and T1’s braking point is on a downhill slope.

When Norris entered the braking point to slow down, Perez behind him also chose to decelerate at the same time.

But because there was a McLaren right in front of him, the turbulent flow reduced Perez’s car’s overall downforce by over 50%.

Despite his preparations, when Perez braked, he found himself closing in on Norris as if he wasn’t pressing the brakes but the accelerator.

Before Perez felt imminent collision with Norris, he could only press the brakes a bit deeper, hoping to further slow down the approach between the two cars.

But this instinctive action completely sent the situation out of control.

Perez’s tires were already at traction limits due to the lack of downforce, and it was a downhill section. Despite adjusting the brake balance towards the rear, the load was mostly on the front wheels during deceleration.

So when Perez deepened the braking slightly, his car’s right front wheel immediately locked up.

The track was already wet, so after the right front wheel locked, the left front wheel followed suit.

With both front wheels locked, the rear wheels locked too, causing Perez’s Red Bull car to lose control on the spot.

It directly crashed into the rear of Norris’s slowing car.

At this moment, Norris’s attention was completely on Verstappen beside him and Hamilton ahead, glancing at the rear-view mirror before reaching the braking point, seeing Perez didn’t take the inside and ignoring him, not realizing the danger was approaching.

Then, Perez smashed directly into the rear of Norris’s car.

At the moment of collision, Perez’s left front suspension was immediately broken, while Norris’s car’s rear diffuser was destroyed, causing it to lift off.

The good news was that Perez’s left front floorboard generated great friction after the suspension broke, slowing Norris’s car down and bringing it back down onto the track.

The bad news was, with the impact from Perez, Norris’s tires lost grip, and right in front of him was Red Bull’s Verstappen.

So, Norris, completely without grip, directly collided with Verstappen at a tricky angle, managing to keep their suspensions intact despite knocking off their side wings and Norris’s front nose.

Meanwhile, Perez, the instigator, also slid straight into the buffer zone, losing traction similar to Norris.

Initially, a car was there waiting for him, similar to Norris, but Gasly, unlike Verstappen, saw the collision between Perez and Norris. So, seeing Perez charging towards him, Gasly chose to run straight into the buffer zone instead.

Even though Gasly avoided a collision with Perez, it was still the early stage of the race.

By rushing into the buffer zone for safety, when Gasly returned to the track, Giovinazzi, who entered the pits to gamble, had already taken the position ahead of him.

He dropped to the back of the pack.

Fortunately, given the gravity of the accident, the safety car had to be deployed, so this loss would quickly be recovered.

The downside was, Gasly started fifth and now he fell to the bottom position.

Such a drop really is significant.

Qin Miao, acting as the Kimi field reporter, witnessed all this happen firsthand, and his car’s camera faithfully recorded everything that just transpired.

After seeing all this, Qin Miao even felt grateful for his mistake at the start, as otherwise, he would have been one of those caught in that crash.

But just as Qin Miao was relieved, preparing to enter the corner, suddenly he heard a crisp carbon fiber crack from behind his car: "Crack!"

Then, a massive force slammed from behind, lifting his rear wheels into the air.

Realizing his car was out of control, Qin Miao’s heart sank.

Damn it! I’ve been hit too.

Luckily, having learned from others, cars behind left more space during the cornering, so Qin Miao only bumped a bit at the back. But due to the sudden force from behind, Qin Miao lost grip entering the corner, sliding into the buffer zone like Perez.

In the chaos, Qin Miao glanced backward, finding a red Ferrari from behind.

Since Sainz didn’t make it to the top ten in the qualifying stage, the person now behind him was self-explanatory.

Leclerc, having knocked Qin Miao out of the track, felt a bit helpless himself. He didn’t mean to, but during T1 cornering he got bumped by Stroll from behind on the inside grass, causing his car to lose control, hitting Qin Miao.

Fortunately, the impact wasn’t huge; aside from the rear diffuser, Qin Miao’s car seemed undamaged.

After the major part of this bumper car Grand Prix passed, only Hamilton from the pole position wasn’t affected among the front-starting drivers.

As if it was all destined.

Noteworthy is that despite the accident involving many cars, apart from Perez, none had suspension damage, only having damage to wings, floorboards, and nose, which don’t affect normal driving. So apart from Perez stopping his car in T1’s buffer zone, everyone quickly left the scene.

As a result, despite the severe collision, only one Red Bull retired first.

Here we only refer to retired cars; apart from those retiring, cars involved in this accident lost a lot of positions.