CHAPTER 559: CHAPTER 243: CHASING EACH OTHER

And Qin Miao’s hard tires wore out only about 40% after thirty laps during testing, so completing the remaining fifty laps with them wouldn’t be too difficult given Qin Miao’s tire degradation rate.

Qin Miao pondered for a moment. His set of medium tires could still hold out for a while, and it’s not as if he couldn’t find the opportunity to overtake Kimi. Furthermore, there were six laps left until the fifty-lap strategy kicked in, so Qin Miao intended to try overtaking Kimi within these six laps.

"Give me some time, I’ll try again."

This was Qin Miao’s response on the TR.

Frankie obviously understood Qin Miao’s words, so after replying with an ’understood,’ there was no further exchange.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao quietly exerted his skills against Kimi on the track.

Qin Miao was really starting to feel a bit insecure due to Kimi’s defense.

However, when he saw the pressure value appear on Kimi, Qin Miao felt some degree of relief.

[Pressure Value: 76%]

Should I say it’s worthy of the Ice Man? Honestly, Qin Miao didn’t see much pressure from Kimi’s driving style.

It felt like Kimi’s defense against Qin Miao was as effortless as Qin Miao’s defense against other drivers; it seemed like a very smooth and easy task.

Yet, in reality, Kimi was scared into a cold sweat from Qin Miao’s two attacks.

This young man, why does he exert so much pressure?

Qin Miao’s attack intentions weren’t obvious; when he suddenly attacked, it had a cold, unexpected effect.

If not for Kimi’s rich experience, knowing when it was the best time for Qin Miao to attack, his two defenses had a preemptive nature, making his defense against Qin Miao appear effortless.

But had Kimi’s experience been slightly lacking, he wouldn’t have been able to fend off Qin Miao’s well-charged ERS second attack at all.

Knowing that Kimi was tough on the outside but soft on the inside, and that Kimi was currently under a lot of pressure, Qin Miao changed his attack strategy from probing to relentless pursuit.

Finally, in the DRS zone on the fourteenth lap, Qin Miao sharply switched from the outside line to the inside, dodged Kimi’s defensive line, and braked late at T1 to finally take Kimi’s position.

After completing this overtake, Qin Miao’s position rose to eighth.

After Qin Miao completed this overtake, the response from the audience was lukewarm, with only a few Mercedes fans giving Qin Miao a smattering of applause and cheers.

In the same lap, shortly after Qin Miao overtook Kimi in front of him, Verstappen also launched an attack on Mick Schumacher ahead of him at the same spot.

It’s worth noting that Verstappen’s car was in much worse condition than Qin Miao’s; yet, in T1, Verstappen also moved outside, but due to imbalance in the car, he went off track at T1.

However, Verstappen quickly regained control, returned to the track, and exceeded Mick by relying on the stronger acceleration of his car on the outside line at T2.

And after Verstappen completed this overtake, the crowd suddenly erupted in loud cheers.

After all, to the current audience, Qin Miao, Hamilton, and the Mercedes team behind them were seen as a mighty dragon; Mercedes had dominated the field for so long that calling them a dragon would not be inappropriate, even quite fitting.

And Verstappen was the only dragon slayer in the field at this moment.

Whether he’ll become another dragon after successfully slaying the current one is yet to be seen, but for now, Verstappen represents the only suspense for this season’s driver’s championship.

Coupled with the fact that he was driving a damaged car, it’s no wonder he received cheers and applause from the audience for his overtake.

On the fifteenth lap, Kimi, whom Qin Miao had just overtaken, received a ten-second penalty from the race officials.

The reason was obvious; the recent collision with Mazepin was a typical case of unsafe release. There’s no arguing or appealing against this.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao had closed in within 1.5 seconds of Russell and started putting pressure on him.

Russell should have been in Qin Miao’s position, but due to Hamilton’s pit stop for tire change, his position improved, somewhat akin to the saying "a whale falls, all things arise."

There’s no feud between Qin Miao and Russell, but Russell had been displeased with Qin Miao for quite some time now.

Ever since it was rumored in the paddock that Ferrari’s Chinese prodigy Qin Miao was joining Mercedes, Russell developed deep resentment and anger towards Qin Miao.

Because, before the start of the 2020 season, Mercedes was already in contact with Russell.

At that time, Russell was not only a young driver from Mercedes’ junior team with sound roots but was also one of the most talented seeds in the paddock, especially with Latifi as a comparison.

The 2020 season was entirely Russell dragging Williams along; such performance made him a good second driver replacement in Mercedes’ view, already considering to replace Bottas.

However, once the news of Qin Miao potentially joining Mercedes broke, those negotiating happily with Russell’s agent immediately withdrew.

The message was clear; in the short term, at least within the next three years, Mercedes had no plans to change its current driver lineup.

Although, at that time, the rumor of Qin Miao joining Mercedes was just circulating in the paddock, seeing the behavior of Mercedes’ people, Russell knew it was most likely true.