Chapter 1211: Chapter 457: Watch My Backup Hidden Power Source!
After Mercedes’ racing performance worsened, Toto obviously became a shadow in the eyes of the live broadcaster; both his focus and the topics around him in the paddock have greatly diminished.
Even though Toto remained expressionless as usual, the slightly bulging masseter muscles on the sides of his cheeks proved that his inner emotions weren’t as calm as they appeared.
It’s likely that he’s cursing inwardly by now.
But at this moment, he couldn’t interfere in the internal conflict between the two drivers.
Due to various reasons, the two drivers of Mercedes have now reached a very delicate balance.
Their relationship is like a heap of rubble after an earthquake — seemingly stable, but you never know if removing a brick or some insignificant stone might trigger a chain reaction, causing the pile to collapse further.
Moreover, both drivers have valid reasons to win this leg of the race.
So regardless of what’s on Toto’s mind right now, he definitely can’t and won’t issue any team orders to the drivers.
Thus, Toto can only helplessly watch the two drivers determine the winner themselves on the track.
After another pass through the main straight, Qin Miao was now just 0.8 seconds behind Hamilton.
The race had gone on for quite a while, and although it was still raining, there were areas on the track that were elevated enough not to accumulate rainwater.
Therefore, Qin Miao being so close to Hamilton’s car wasn’t affected by the spray kicked up, at least it’s within an acceptable range.
Occasionally, Qin Miao even had to leave the racing line to deliberately drive over areas with water puddles to cool down his tires.
At this point, the benefits of both cars having the same aerodynamic components and engines started to show; the competition was no longer about team’s development capabilities, but about the driver’s control and driving skills on track.
Compared to Hamilton, Qin Miao, who had been preserving his tires since the race restarted, naturally had an advantage. His tires were at least three laps newer than Hamilton’s.
So, Qin Miao confidently gave Hamilton the inside line at T1, while he prepared to take a wide entry line on the outside, taking advantage of the high-speed turn characteristics of Suzuka Circuit’s T1 to attempt a late braking maneuver.
Hamilton felt the pressure from Qin Miao but also got excited.
The entire season, Hamilton had been waiting behind Qin Miao, now finally having the chance on track to prove that his underperformance this season, and even being outperformed by his sophomore rookie teammate, wasn’t because he has aged, but purely due to team car issues.
It’s time to announce to all F1 fans that the once invincible seven-time champion... is back.
On track, Qin Miao applied pressure on the outside of Hamilton, like Verstappen during the start didn’t start as well as Leclerc but still forced a pass on the outside line at T1.
Qin Miao also intended to take the same route as Verstappen, but Hamilton’s lead over Qin Miao was obviously more than Leclerc’s was over Verstappen at the time.
So Qin Miao ended up only entering T1 side by side with Hamilton, without any decisive advantage before the braking point at T2.
Thus, when they reached T2, Hamilton forcibly held the inside line, leaving Qin Miao no opportunity to continue overtaking on the outside.
The first encounter between the two Mercedes drivers at Suzuka Circuit thus came to an end.
Comments