Chapter 1208: Chapter 457: Watch My Backup Hidden Power Source! (6K, Extra Update 4/19)
At this moment, the Mercedes team staff felt both confident and somewhat anxious, because the data obtained on Friday showed that the intermediate tires were faster than full wet tires. However, the car setup back then was entirely different from now, so they weren’t quite certain if the same scenario could be applied to today’s cars.
Besides the Mercedes team, the Ferrari and Red Bull team staff were also feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety.
Naturally, they hoped for Qin Miao and Hamilton to make a wrong tire choice, with the intermediate tires finding no grip on the current wet conditions at Suzuka Circuit.
However, with the safety car pulling away, Verstappen began slowing down the pack and weaving side to side, warming up his tires, with all answers about to be revealed.
Ultimately, after passing the T16 and T17 straight sections, Verstappen started to accelerate.
But due to the rain, the gap between Hamilton and the car ahead, Leclerc, wasn’t very close, so when Verstappen started accelerating, Qin Miao was still slowing down at the braking point of T16.
Yet, as Verstappen entered T18, the race finally resumed.
At this point, Hamilton wasn’t joking around.
After exiting T17, he followed Leclerc closely, and as they reached the main straight, he stayed on the outside dirty line of Leclerc, pushing through the water to forcibly shorten the time gap between them.
From this alone, it was clear that the Mercedes team hadn’t misjudged the track conditions and tire data. Under the current track conditions, the intermediate tire grip and speed were indeed faster than full wet tires, even significantly so.
If Verstappen and Leclerc in first and second still wanted to struggle against the Mercedes cars, then the drivers behind Qin Miao were notably obedient and docile.
After starting, none of them remained on the track, even though they hadn’t seen the speed of Qin Miao and Hamilton’s intermediate tires on the circuit.
But with the racers’ track experience and the close-combat strategy displayed by the Mercedes team, everyone believed the intermediate tires were faster.
The pit stop tire change naturally caused quite a bit of chaos, as all remaining 14 drivers decided to pit for tire changes at this time, except the top 4 and 2 drivers who retired.
Traffic jams were common, and if you were unlucky to encounter the double car pit stop ahead, you would have to wait at your position until the two cars completed their tire change before you could leave.
The pit area directly resembled the scene of morning and evening rush hours on the Third Ring Road.
In these traffic conditions, unsafe releases were common, and this time at least four drivers received penalties due to unsafe releases during their pit stops.
In summary, all the drivers behind the top four were in a state of chaos in the pit lane.
Qin Miao wasn’t in a hurry during this period.
No matter how intense the battle was between Hamilton and Leclerc, it was an objective fact that Verstappen and Leclerc’s full wet tire speed was slower than Hamilton and Qin Miao.
To avoid losing more positions, they would definitely come in for a tire change after this lap.
By then, Qin Miao and Hamilton had gained more than a 16-second lead purely due to the exploratory pit stop during practice.
Sure enough, after one lap, Leclerc, who was struggling to defend against Hamilton, and Verstappen ahead of Leclerc both decided to pit.
They naturally changed to intermediate tires.
After the top two cars pitted, Qin Miao and Hamilton moved up to their rightful positions.
Hamilton was first, Qin Miao second.
Looking at the leading Hamilton, Qin Miao originally thought of using tire management to gain enough tire advantage in the later stages to take down Hamilton.
But as the time approached 30 minutes until the end of the race, Qin Miao realized that even if he started conserving tires, the time gap with Hamilton remained at 1.8 seconds.
At this point, Qin Miao realized, Hamilton was also conserving tires, he too wanted to run the race on a single set of intermediate tires.
This old man was guarding against me!
Although Hamilton’s tire management ability wasn’t as notorious as Qin Miao’s, Hamilton linked Qin Miao’s competitiveness in the rain wasn’t very strong, added to Suzuka Circuit’s challenging overtaking nature, and the fact that Hamilton had already fully adapted to the W13B, he was confident in holding off Qin Miao’s pressure in the latter stages of the race.
And while Qin Miao had agreed with Barber beforehand that he wasn’t concerned about who claimed this Grand Prix victory, Qin Miao’s main goal in this race was to widen the points gap with Verstappen, further solidifying his current lead in the standings.
But deep down, Qin Miao definitely hoped this Grand Prix victory would land in his pocket.
During his F2 races, Qin Miao already showcased this trait.
After the F2 season ended, he specifically handed over his championship car to Zhou Guanyu, exchanging for the two F2 championship trophies, which was not just because of Qin Miao’s OCD, but more due to his longing for Grand Prix victories.
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