Chapter 1402 - 527: Treating the Boss to Dinner

Chapter 1402: Chapter 527: Treating the Boss to Dinner

As for Perez, this is a classic case where a team’s strategic mistake ends up being paid for by the driver.

Moreover, Perez was driving a rocket car and only managed to climb from eighth to fifth place, which doesn’t qualify as a good race for Perez.

However, let’s be honest, Master Pei did have it rough in today’s race.

A perfectly good chance to fight for a race win just disappeared because of an early pit stop.

As for Leclerc...

Leclerc really gave it his all in today’s race.

Qin Miao knew from mobile chats with Leclerc that Ferrari’s tires degrade particularly quickly this season.

This means that Ferrari still has some competitiveness during the qualifying stage.

Sometimes it can even give Mercedes and Red Bull a scare.

But once it comes to the race, because of the tire’s early degradation issues, Ferrari’s speed in the latter half drops significantly.

Ferrari is like a dragon in qualifying, but like an insect during the race.

It’s the exact opposite of Qin Miao’s condition.

As a result, finishing sixth is about as far as Leclerc could push it after the race.

Finally, Zhou Guanyu hovered right on the edge of the points zone, thrillingly securing one point for Alfa Romeo.

The reason it was thrilling is that up until the last lap of the race, Zhou Guanyu was fighting with Magelsen for that last point.

Ultimately, it was Zhou Guanyu, who learned from Qin Miao, who held off Magelsen’s attack in this segment.

In a post-race interview, Magelsen actually wanted to say a few ironic words about his encounter with Zhou Guanyu when asked by the reporter.

Damn it, he defended as if I’m some kind of thief just to keep a single point, is it necessary? What’s wrong with letting me have one point?

But thinking about the huge Chinese market and the growing number of Chinese sponsors in the paddock, Magelsen opted to compliment Zhou Guanyu: "Although I’ve never experienced Qin Miao’s defense on track, fighting with Zhou Guanyu felt like what it would be against Qin Miao’s defense. It must feel similar to those last three laps on track with me."

Naturally, Magelsen’s post-race comment earned him high praise from many fans back home.

[Old Mag is really a good guy; he truly praises what should be praised]

...

After parking the car on the post-race podium, Qin Miao got out and saw Verstappen with a not-so-happy look.

Well, you couldn’t quite say Verstappen was unhappy, more like he was feeling frustrated.

After all, on a perfectly good Grand Prix weekend, the car had problems during qualifying, and although the issue was fixed for the race, for some reason, everyone he encountered while chasing Qin Miao seemed to be blocking him for Qin Miao.

When he learned that Qin Miao, due to a safety car on track, did not choose to use soft tires for the last stint but rather hard tires,

Verstappen knew that Qin Miao’s tire-saving strategy was effectively unusable, and he could overwhelm Qin Miao with outright speed on track.

Finding out about this made Verstappen so excited that he almost wanted to jump out of the car and kiss Stroll on the face.

But soon, Verstappen’s excitement turned into helplessness and anger.

This race was not smooth for him, and even with a safety car, it still did not go smoothly.

Whether it was Zhou Guanyu in the early phase, Sainz in the middle, or later Leclerc, Alonso, and Hamilton,

All of these drivers, who did not have a direct conflict of interest with him, knew that they were not on the same pit strategy and had no direct competition, but they acted as if they had been paid by Qin Miao.

As soon as he got behind them, they all seriously defended against him.

He could understand Hamilton and Zhou Guanyu doing their best to defend against him, as one was Qin Miao’s teammate, and the other had a close relationship with Qin Miao.

But tmd, why were you, Alonso, defending me so seriously?

Even if you defended me, you couldn’t avoid the inevitable fact of me overtaking you, right!

And how would you deal with the tires’ grip at the later stage of the race after wasting them blocking me?

The ultimate result was that Verstappen missed what seemed like a heaven-sent great opportunity.

Qin Miao didn’t ask Verstappen why he had a sour face; putting himself in Verstappen’s shoes, not getting the race win would make him feel the same way.

Nonetheless, Qin Miao politely greeted him.

The subsequent time was for weighing, post-race interviews, and the podium ceremony.

Qin Miao was already familiar with this whole routine.

Finally, the Saudi Grand Prix concluded with champagne being sprayed by Hamilton and Qin Miao.

Qin Miao also secured his career’s first record of winning back-to-back wins right off the bat in the season opener.

After this race, the driver standings are as follows:

1: Qin Miao: 50

2: Verstappen: 37

3: Hamilton: 30

4: Alonso: 22

5: Perez: 20

6: Sainz: 14

7: Leclerc: 10

8: Stroll: 6

9: Bottas: 4

10: O’Kang: 4

11: Gasly: 4

12: Zhou Guanyu: 3

The constructors’ standings are as follows:

1. Mercedes: 80

2. Red Bull: 47

3. Aston Martin: 28

4. Ferrari: 24