CHAPTER 557: CHAPTER 242: WORLD FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX_2

Mick completely didn’t consider the performance gap between Mercedes and Haas at all.

Do you understand the value of a Mercedes engine? How does a crappy Haas with a Ferrari engine have the guts to play cross lines with me?

So after exiting the corner, Qin Miao distanced himself from Mick at a visibly noticeable speed.

Cross lines? Even though my rear diffuser is damaged and I can’t accelerate too early, the performance gap is clear, how can you catch up?

Mick is like a pig chasing a swallow, unable to do anything but helplessly shout from behind.

After easily overtaking Mick, the next target for Qin Miao was Ricardo.

At this point, the distance between them wasn’t too much, but the guy is after all a race winner, so he definitely has skills, and considering the track characteristics, Qin Miao wasn’t planning to overtake immediately.

Instead, he kept putting pressure on him, waiting for him to make a mistake, or if not, wait for the DRS.

The track conditions are improving now, and I believe the DRS will be enabled soon.

Meanwhile, Russell in second place noticeably started to slow down.

Commentators were very puzzled by this sight: "Why did Russell suddenly slow down?"

"Oh no, it’s such a pity because Hengelo track is known for being easy to maintain good results after reaching second place. It’s a real shame if Russell’s car has a problem now."

"Did he crash somewhere? Overtaking in Hengelo track is difficult, so encountering problems now is really unfortunate."

But the truth was that it wasn’t because Russell’s car had an issue; it was as Frankie told Qin Miao—Russell was penalized for overtaking illegally in the pit lane and had to return to his original position, dropping from second to eighth.

At the same time Russell returned the position, Hamilton pitted to switch to worn medium tires that had been used for three laps.

As Hamilton pitted, O’Kang behind had caught up to within three seconds of Hamilton’s position.

This shows how big the speed gap is between wet tires and dry tires.

Old Man, unlike Qin Miao, doesn’t have that typical Chinese trait of feeling uneasy without a stockpile at home, so he doesn’t have any new medium tire reserves.

By the time Hamilton came out of the pit lane, all the cars had already passed by.

Interestingly, Latifi, who originally was fifth, moved up to third as Russell returned his position and Hamilton pitted.

The two drivers ahead of him are O’Kang leading and Vettel in second.

It’s hard to imagine that Latifi would appear in third place.

No F1 fan would have predicted such a scene on the track before this occurred.

And currently, the track standings are as follows:

1: O’Kang

2: Vettel

3: Latifi

4: Tsunoda

5: Sainz

6: Alonso

7: Russell

8: KIMI

9: Ricardo

10: Qin Miao

11: Mick

12: Verstappen

13: Gasly

14: Giovinazzi

15: Hamilton

Moreover, the gap between Hamilton and Giovinazzi now is 5.5 seconds.

It is foreseeable that this will be an extremely long chase battle on the Hengelo track, where overtaking is very challenging.

Incidentally, after entering the pits, Mazepin never managed to get out of the pit lane.

That’s because while changing tires, Mazepin collided with Kimi, who had just exited the tire change area with fresh tires. Mazepin’s right front suspension collided with Kimi’s left rear wheel, breaking Mazepin’s right front suspension on the spot, while Kimi’s car was unscathed.

Having a broken suspension on the track is basically impossible to fix urgently. It’s not like the DRS wing; you can’t just tape it back together or simply not use DRS anymore. With a broken suspension, drivers have only one choice—to retire.

This is only the fifth lap, and already five drivers have retired, with two more on the track with damaged cars.

Qin Miao ended up with the least damage among them.

However, the race can be said to have officially begun with several bumps and setbacks.

By the end of lap six, Qin Miao relied on his car’s strong performance and his own skills to close the gap to Ricardo to 0.6 seconds.

Although the rear diffuser damage had significantly reduced rear downforce, the W12 still had its performance. After catching up to Ricardo, Qin Miao took a line more favorable for accelerations after the straight in T13 and T14, the last two consecutive complex turns.

And because the pressure from Qin Miao was strong enough, Ricardo took a defensive line.

So after exiting T14, Qin Miao had a 5 km/h speed advantage over Ricardo. Though the time gap between him and Ricardo increased to 0.8 seconds due to taking a wider line, Qin Miao was rapidly closing in on Ricardo in the following acceleration segment, relying on a faster exit and Ricardo’s slipstream.

Ricardo, realizing Qin Miao was quickly closing in, took the inside defensive line.

But with the rich fuel mode and full ERS release, Qin Miao was side by side with Ricardo on the outside before the braking point of T1.

And at the braking point, Qin Miao’s front wheel was at Ricardo’s front wing.

Knowing that the inside line being blocked would make it impossible to overtake, Qin Miao aimed for the cross line from the start.

With the cross line exiting T1, the gap between them became very small, only 0.3 seconds.

Although the straight following T1 isn’t very long, Qin Miao moved to the inside in the middle of it.

Ricardo tried to resist, allowing Qin Miao the inside line at the braking point, preparing to replicate Qin Miao’s previous crossing line maneuver.

But what Ricardo didn’t expect was that Qin Miao didn’t brake late and entered the corner side by side with him.

Completely stifling Ricardo’s attempt to take the cross line, Ricardo could only watch helplessly as Qin Miao overtook him from the inside in T2, moving up to ninth place.

Looking at Qin Miao’s car ahead, Ricardo suddenly felt a sense of helplessness rising from within himself.

Ricardo is considered one of the more talented drivers among many in F1, although he has been a bit uncomfortable driving this season’s McLaren, he expected that Qin Miao, who wasn’t fully fit either and had damage to his car, would offer some resistance. However, facing Qin Miao in such a condition, Ricardo felt powerless. No matter how many times they raced, Qin Miao would still overtake him with all sorts of attacking maneuvers.

This feeling wasn’t new, but it wasn’t something just any driver could impart on him.

And now, Qin Miao’s name was added to that list.

"He’s too fast and his lines are too precise; I can’t defend," Ricardo’s somewhat helpless voice echoed through the McLaren Team’s TR.

...

"Beautiful!"

Upon seeing Qin Miao overtake Ricardo, Fei raised his arms and cheered, "A beautiful and precise cross line!"

Bing also commented with emotion, "Watching Qin Miao’s overtakes on the track now is truly enjoyable. His lines are sharp and his overtaking decisive, with a perfect grasp of rhythm and timing, and no inappropriate maneuvers."

Zhou Haoran also remarked, "Qin Miao’s overtakes are like a program optimized countless times."

"Absolutely, it’s stunning."

"Now the pressure is on Hamilton. Qin Miao is cutting through like a knife. If Hamilton cannot catch up to Qin Miao before the race ends, Qin Miao will open the points gap between Hamilton and Verstappen on the scoreboard."

Bing laughed, "I used to only hope Zhou Guanyu would one day enter F1.

But little did we expect that one day Qin Miao appeared in our sights.

Qin Miao’s emergence is truly a surprising joy for us and a wide audience of domestic F1 fans.

But nothing could have prepared us for Qin Miao to join a championship-contending team like Mercedes in his first F1 season.

The most crucial thing is, as Qin Miao gradually adapts to the rhythm of F1 races.

No, it can even be said that he hasn’t fully adapted to the F1 race rhythm yet displayed such remarkable performances, now directly surpassing and potentially leading his teammate, the seven-time champion Hamilton, on the scoreboard.

This is a phenomenal unexpected achievement for us."

"To exaggerate a bit, now I might even laugh in my sleep when I dream about Qin Miao’s performances on the track..."

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