CHAPTER 564: CHAPTER 244: HAMILTON DEFENSE OVERVIEW

But now it won’t work, Toto has already clearly stated that he and Hamilton can engage in in-team battles this season, but everything is under the premise of ensuring the team’s interests.

So Qin Miao had no choice. After taking the lead, he began to steadily expand the gap between himself and O’Kang at a rate of 0.7 seconds per lap, praying in his heart that Hamilton would run a bit slower.

Actually, Qin Miao could have expanded the gap with O’Kang faster, but there are more than thirty laps left in the race. Qin Miao still has to guard against Hamilton catching up to attack him, so he doesn’t dare to use the tires too aggressively.

However, as the race progressed, Qin Miao became more and more at ease.

Because by the 45th lap of the race, Hamilton was still stuck behind Sainz.

And at this time, he had somehow managed to open up a gap of over 5.7 seconds with O’Kang behind him.

Qin Miao’s lap times were very stable. The reason for such a large gap was mainly because Vettel had been chasing O’Kang from behind, putting pressure on him, causing O’Kang to waste a lot of time on the defensive line.

As the race continued, Hamilton grew more and more anxious, because with each additional lap, the likelihood of him catching up to Qin Miao decreased.

Moreover, Alonso was half a second faster per lap than Hamilton after the pit stops, and the gap between him and Hamilton was rapidly shrinking.

If it dragged on further, it wouldn’t just be Hamilton unable to overtake Sainz anymore, but he would also be attacked from behind by Alonso on the new hard tires.

So with a blockade in front and a chase from behind, Hamilton finally chose to pit on lap 47.

By this time, the gap between Qin Miao and O’Kang behind had already been stretched to 9 seconds.

With 22 laps remaining in the race, Hamilton pitted to change to medium tires.

Whether Hamilton can catch up to Qin Miao and replace him in this race ultimately depends on this final gamble.

The new medium tires were put on the car, with a total time of 2.3 seconds. Hamilton came out 15 seconds behind Alonso, at sixth position.

Qin Miao naturally heard the report from Frankie on the team radio: "Hamilton pitted and changed to his last set of medium tires."

It wasn’t hard to guess Hamilton’s idea of pitting at this time, aiming for first place while also keeping the fastest lap.

After one lap, the gap between Alonso and Hamilton had been shortened to 13.6 seconds.

This shows that with clean air, Hamilton’s speed was quite impressive.

It didn’t surprise Qin Miao that in the second lap after coming out, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race.

By the 51st lap, the gap between Hamilton and Alonso ahead was only 9 seconds.

With the new medium tires, Hamilton was 2.7 seconds faster per lap than Qin Miao.

By the 52nd lap, the gap between Hamilton and Alonso was only 5 seconds.

On the 53rd lap, Sainz intentionally gave Alonso some DRS, but even so, Hamilton still caught up to within 3 seconds behind Alonso.

Given Hamilton’s pace of being 3 seconds faster per lap than Alonso, everyone thought that Hamilton would ultimately catch up to Alonso, surpass Sainz, and eventually use the same method to overtake Vettel and O’Kang, beginning his pursuit of his teammate Qin Miao.

But to everyone’s surprise, this race witnessed the rise of another defensive master.

On the 55th lap, Hamilton and Alonso began their battle.

But as soon as they clashed, Hamilton noticed something was wrong.

Alonso managed to resolve Hamilton’s attacks at critical positions on the Hengelo track.

Even though Hamilton often tried to overtake on the inside advantage on unlikely or difficult corners, Alonso always managed to push Hamilton outwards slightly.

But this slight push happened to block Hamilton’s best exit line from the corner.

Normally, Hamilton could exit a corner at full throttle, but it was due to Alonso’s push.

If Hamilton didn’t want to crash or go off the track, he had to lift off the gas or apply a bit of brake.

And it wasn’t just once or twice. Since the skirmish started between Alonso and Hamilton, Alonso could always defend Hamilton’s attack routes with these not large but deadly and crucial blocking moves.

In the eyes of everyone watching and cheering, from the 55th lap to the 65th lap, Alonso locked Hamilton for a full ten laps.

For Hamilton, those ten laps were truly like years, and for Hamilton’s crew and Toto, the management staff, those ten laps were equally grueling.

Every failed attack, blocked by Alonso’s various techniques, sealing the best exit routes, forced onto the grass, pressured to brake.

Hamilton would furiously complain on the team radio.

Such as: "Alonso is driving recklessly!"

"His driving behavior is too dangerous!"

"Alonso is closing the door on me on track, he’s breaking the rules!"

"Squeezing my line at this speed is too dangerous!"

"Is there any more power?"

"He shouldn’t defend me like this!"