CHAPTER 561: CHAPTER 243: THE PURSUIT CONTINUES

However, due to the overly aggressive language from some fans, it’s best not to go into detail here.

In short, after exiting the pit area, Qin Miao found himself 1.2 seconds ahead of Mick, with only 6 seconds of clean air in front of him.

The reason for having less clean air than expected was mainly because, over the past few laps, the gaps between the entire pack widened further.

This was considered a miscalculation by the team’s strategy department.

After Hamilton came out, he was positioned ahead of Kimi, with over 10 seconds of clean air before him.

Even the tiniest advantage counts; the injection of this stretch of clean air could notably increase both of their speeds.

Because after Qin Miao and Hamilton pitted, the drivers in front of them might also choose to pit during this time to prevent both from undercutting.

Thus, the lap immediately after coming out was extremely crucial; whether they could successfully undercut the cars ahead depended on how well they performed on this lap.

Unexpectedly for Qin Miao, the drivers ahead of him did not choose to pit after he did, but rather Ricardo and Verstappen pitted ahead of Hamilton.

The reason for their pit stop wasn’t hard to guess—to prevent being undercut by Hamilton.

When the two rejoined the track, naturally Qin Miao had nothing to worry about. He was already faster than them, so when they changed tires, Qin Miao passed them.

It was Hamilton who was most concerned about their pit stop and tire change timing.

When the two exited the pit lane, it was just as Hamilton went full-speed down the starting straight.

Through the cameras, it was clear Hamilton overtook the trailing Verstappen on the outside line.

As for Ricardo ahead, although he and Hamilton entered T1 side by side, Ricardo’s tire temperature was insufficient compared to Hamilton’s hard tires, which had already completed a lap and provided superior grip.

Even though Ricardo defended the inside line, Hamilton still leveraged his tire advantage to overtake Ricardo on the outside line at T1.

Thus, Hamilton completed the undercut on both drivers and incidentally undercut Gasly, who hadn’t opted to pit either.

On the other side, the drivers originally ahead of Qin Miao asked their teams whether they should pit for a tire change when they saw Qin Miao pitting.

Most teams did not instruct their drivers to pit, and for a simple reason—Qin Miao’s performance in Monaco was the best reason.

While the audience couldn’t see it, the teams knew that Qin Miao still had a new set of soft tires in the garage.

Given Qin Miao’s tire management capabilities, employing a two-stop strategy would mean almost no driver could withstand Qin Miao’s advances.

It’s just a position, not necessary to disrupt their own rhythm for it.

The most critical reason was that, unlike Qin Miao and Hamilton, they couldn’t find any clean air after pitting.

In the following laps, both Mercedes drivers were quite pleased.

After all, the clean air in front opened up a stretch of road, so they no longer had to inhale the exhaust of cars ahead while driving a car lacking downforce.

Qin Miao even set a new personal fastest lap time, though it wasn’t long before Hamilton reclaimed the fastest lap from Qin Miao.

On the twenty-third lap, Tsunoda opted to pit, which was his regular pit timing.

Tsunoda’s pit stop time matched Qin Miao’s, at 2.6 seconds.

Upon returning to the track, he naturally ended up right behind Qin Miao.

With Latifi’s presence, the gap between Qin Miao and the group ahead wasn’t large, now providing Qin Miao enough clean air to clock faster lap times.

It wasn’t surprising that Tsunoda was overtaken by Qin Miao within two laps.

It could even be said that, with the lack of resistance from the group of drivers ahead, Qin Miao had already passed Latifi in three laps and started pursuing Vettel in front.

Once all drivers completed a pit stop, they would be surprised to find that Qin Miao was now in third place.

This is the magic of the Hengelo circuit.