Chapter 126 - 51: I Was Too Stupid

Chapter 126: Chapter 51: I Was Too Stupid

Sunny races always put people more at ease. After parking his car on the starting grid, Wu Shi began to admire the grid girls.

However, the other drivers were not as relaxed as him. Having experienced the Rain Battle at noon, most of them still felt a lingering dread. Due to concerns about the track conditions, they bypassed the starting grid one after another and drove onto the inside line, opting for another reconnaissance lap. As a result, Wu Shi was currently the only one parked on the grid.

A minute and a half later, Alan TR came through, "O’connor has chosen to start from the pit lane."

Wu Shi TR, "Is his car not set up right?"

Alan TR, "We don’t know the situation at the moment."

O’connor’s car had suffered the most severe damage during the six-car pileup in the second race. He might have indeed discovered an issue during the recent reconnaissance lap and needed to go back for adjustments.

With O’connor leaving, Verstappen, who was starting from third, was now effectively starting from second.

Thinking of this, Wu Shi glanced back. This guy was driving more and more aggressively lately. He licked his slightly dry lips, deciding it was best not to give Verstappen any chances. Otherwise, dive-bombing through the corners was much faster than taking the racing line.

Verstappen was also sizing up Wu Shi. He knew that with O’connor’s obstruction gone, he only needed to overtake one person to win the championship! This made him itch for action, his mind unconsciously beginning to search for advantageous overtaking spots across the entire track.

Verstappen TR, "Did you say Wu Shi’s driving style on this track is relatively conservative?"

Engineer TR, "Yes, but I must remind you, don’t be reckless!"

Verstappen TR, "Alright, I know."

As a sharp bell rang, all personnel cleared the grid. Wu Shi shot another glance at Verstappen before focusing all his attention on the indicator lights ahead.

The five red lights lit up one after another. BEEP. They paused for a full three seconds before suddenly going out.

It was another start light with an ultra-long wait. Once Wu Shi reacted, he launched immediately.

VROOM VROOM!

The engine began to roar as the race car surged forward.

Because O’connor was absent, his flank was completely empty. He didn’t need to defend at all; he only had to keep an eye on Verstappen. In the rearview mirror, Verstappen’s launch speed was about the same as his, but he was weaker in gear matching, so he simply couldn’t launch an attack during the starting phase.

However, they were immediately approaching Turn 2, which required massive deceleration, and Verstappen closed right in on him.

It was this extreme late-braking technique again to seize the initiative.

But Wu Shi paid it no mind. He drove his car almost level with the apex before abruptly steering. Car 32 was heavily biased towards highly sensitive steering, so after the speed dropped, he cut right into the corner with a single flick of the wheel.

Meanwhile, although Verstappen’s car was further ahead, he would need to steer at the center of the corner, forcing him onto the outside line on the left. Taking advantage of this, Wu Shi dove into the corner, driving tightly along the right edge line.

"Wu used a brilliant switchback to neutralize Verstappen’s attack this time! Verstappen not only failed to grab the position, but even compromised his own cornering speed.

"However, this perfectly matches Verstappen’s driving style. He always relies on later braking to exploit his opponents’ gaps and steal their positions.

"It looks like Wu knows him extremely well. He even yielded the position early on, deliberately letting Verstappen charge the inside line.

"These two are truly friends who have been racing together since childhood. They know each other inside and out!"

After finishing their commentary on the front row, the commentators quickly looked towards the back. Before they could even speak, two more cars slid out simultaneously at Turn 2.

"It’s Alexander and Richard! Their cars have lost control!"

Clearly, this street circuit was simply an F3 killer. There were more accidents in these three races than in the previous six combined.

On the track, after Wu Shi entered the straight following Turn 2, Verstappen kept trailing behind him, slipstreaming. The gap between the two had now widened, so in order to overtake Wu Shi, he had to get as close to him as possible. Therefore, he had to take more risks when handling the car. This instinctive pursuit of the limit made his adrenaline surge, and the risks were gradually tossed to the back of his mind.

SWOOSH!

The two race cars scraped across the road one after another, churning up dead leaves, and turned into the next corner with the furious roar of their engines.

From Turn 3 all the way to Turn 15, there were almost no good overtaking spots, so Verstappen never had a chance to make a move.

Wu Shi was surprised that Verstappen could actually keep up with him, but he wasn’t worried. Because the temperature was relatively low after the rain, the tires were far from entering their optimal operating temperature range. In two laps, he would show Verstappen exactly how the Boucle de Pau Track should be run!

SWISH! CLACK-CLACK!

The continuous corners, uphills, and downhills made the vehicles unusually bumpy and difficult to control, which was also one of the challenges of this track.

From Turn 15 onwards, there was a slight downhill curve. Wu Shi glanced in the rearview mirror. Sure enough, Verstappen wouldn’t give up on this longest straight and was preparing to use the slipstream to catch up.

As they neared the kink at Turn 16, Verstappen abruptly pulled out to the right to close in.

Wu Shi scanned the road conditions ahead and, without hesitation, veered slightly to the right while easing off the throttle a bit. This allowed Verstappen to get closer and closer to him. However, the track, which was originally about three lanes wide, would sharply narrow down to two lanes at Turn 16.

So, while it seemed like Verstappen was about to overtake Wu Shi from the right at any moment, he actually had to hit the brakes immediately, otherwise...

BANG!

The right front wing of Verstappen’s car first scraped against the guardrail narrowing to the right, and then the entire car was squeezed against it.

The sturdy guardrail instantly brought Car 30 to a halt. Verstappen was completely stunned.

It took him a good while to realize that the space Wu Shi had just left was entirely insufficient for a race car to pass through! This guy had used the visual effect created by the narrowing guardrail to cause a slight deviation in his judgment!

No. He shook his head, then felt that Wu Shi had actually left enough space. It must have been that his speed was too fast just now, making it impossible for him to execute his envisioned maneuver.

"I crashed. I was too stupid," Verstappen said to his engineer over the TR.

"Are you physically okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

A yellow flag was waved on the track. After slowing down, Wu Shi also spoke into the TR, "Is he okay?"

Alan TR, "He’s fine."

Wu Shi TR, "That’s good. He should have slowed down and tucked back behind me just now. The conditions for overtaking simply weren’t there at that moment."

Alan TR, "Yes."

Having lost his strongest competitor, there was no longer much suspense about Wu Shi’s victory. Thirty-six minutes into the race, Wu Shi crossed the finish line, bringing it home perfectly.

The drivers crossing the finish line behind him were also familiar faces.

Second place, Rosenqvist.

Third place, O’connor.

Fourth place, Bromquist.

After parking his race car securely in the parc fermé, Wu Shi had just finished weighing in when a reporter ran over to interview him.

"Hey, Wu! During the race just now, only Verstappen brought you some pressure at the very beginning. Later, he had an accident when he was about to overtake you. What do you think caused this?"

Wu Shi glanced at the reporter—a woman wearing thick eyeliner—and replied, "He was too greedy. Although I left him enough distance for one race car to pass through, it was very hard to control. So at that moment, he had to decelerate, but he felt he could handle it."

"Yep, this is another PTW for you! You’ve already secured eight victories, getting closer and closer to your goal of twenty-one. However, we recently heard that you seem to have some connections with the Mercedes F1 Team. Could you share a bit about that?"

"Can you speak Chinese? I don’t understand," Wu Shi suddenly switched to Chinese.

"???" The reporter’s face was filled with question marks.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds before the reporter stammered, "Okay, thank you."

Wu Shi waved at the camera. Towards reporters who had no sense of boundaries, he wouldn’t have any sense of boundaries either.