Chapter 1486 - 542: Monaco Begins

Chapter 1486: Chapter 542: Monaco Begins

At this moment, Qin Miao is behind Alonso, unable to overtake on the outside line, and next to Hamilton, where there’s no room to squeeze into the inside line.

This is akin to being imprisoned on the track.

Damn, this is Qin Miao’s most genuine feeling at the moment.

Qin Miao can’t remember how many times this season he has had an excellent, even perfect, start, but because his qualifying ranking wasn’t particularly good, his starting position gets stuck behind other drivers, making overtaking impossible.

No wonder when Qin Miao used to watch races, some drivers would immediately veer hard to the outside line, pulling the whole car out wide.

Either you stay stuck behind and feel frustrated, or you veer off to the outside line, but the advantage of your start gets wasted in that move.

It’s a choice between two options, picking the slightly more comfortable one.

"Let’s watch Qin Miao’s start in today’s race!"

"Qin Miao’s start is beautiful. Is there a chance to overtake? Qin Miao?! Oh no, the advantage isn’t big enough."

"As long as there’s no mistake at the start in Monaco, positions rarely change, so it’s a pity for Qin Miao’s excellent start that got blocked."

"That’s right, and Monaco’s street circuit characteristics make the space too narrow for starts, which limits Qin Miao’s performance, quite unfortunate."

Seeing Qin Miao’s start, the three commentators of Five-Star Sports sighed regretfully.

Normally, they wouldn’t react like this for a Grand Prix, but they know Monaco circuit’s notorious trait of being hard to overtake in recent years. Basically, wherever you start is where you’ll likely finish.

So after the start, they pretty much assumed Qin Miao would hardly make it to the podium today.

...

On the track, once an excellent start failed to convert into a better position, Qin Miao, already accustomed to such a feeling, was relatively calm.

But one can’t blame Qin Miao for being timid in the start phase battles.

Because it isn’t necessarily Qin Miao’s fault. If the Mercedes car’s performance were slightly better and allowed Qin Miao’s qualifying time to be 0.2 seconds faster, enabling him to start second without cars blocking ahead, Qin Miao might have been able to challenge Verstappen’s position at T1 with the perfect start.

But there’s truly no way around it; Mercedes’ performance isn’t as good as Red Bull’s, particularly on a street circuit like Monte Carlo.

After the race began, Qin Miao stabilized his car’s position behind Hamilton.

Simultaneously, Qin Miao also internally remarked, "Race over."

At least in Qin Miao’s mind, he believed today’s race would likely end this way.

It’s hard to say about the drivers behind, but the positions among the front-row drivers were virtually fixed.

On lap two, Perez and Hockenheim opted directly to pit for hard tires, evidently preparing to run the race on a single set of hard tires.

But let me tell you, although risky, it’s not impossible in Monte Carlo to do this.

Knowing that the drivers behind can’t overtake, essentially all drivers will try to protect their tires, slowing down their speed significantly.

This is the main reason why audiences have been criticizing how dull the Monaco Grand Prix has been in recent years.

But let me tell you, this strategy does work because by lap 9, the two who pitted early had already caught up with the tail end of the main pack.

For the next period, the race maintained the traditional Monaco Grand Prix rhythm.

Everyone on the circuit was cruising, and no one could overtake anyone else.

This situation persisted until lap 11.

At the time, Sainz, running seventh, tried to overtake O’Kang.

Oh, right, why isn’t O’Kang behind Leclerc? Mainly because Leclerc already overtook O’Kang during the start, moving up a position behind Qin Miao.

As for the harsh words Leclerc directed at Qin Miao before the race, such as threatening to leave Qin Miao trailing... Qin Miao didn’t take them to heart at all.

During the start phase, Leclerc had the inside line start and a longer acceleration stretch compared to Qin Miao. Combining this with the excitement of competing at his home Grand Prix, his start speed and reaction were particularly quick.

Although not as outlandish as Qin Miao’s, it was just slightly inferior, and given Qin Miao stuck close to Alonso right from the start, he left some braking zone, allowing Leclerc to squeeze onto O’Kang’s inside line at T1, completing the overtake.

Turning our attention back to the track.

Sainz was preparing to make a move on the O’Kang ahead of him at T10.

Technically, there are only two conventional overtaking spots at the Monte Carlo circuit.

One is at the end of DRS at T1.

Inserting into the inside at this corner’s braking point provides some chance to overtake the car ahead.

And the other braking point is after exiting the tunnel at T10, as it’s a heavy braking curve.

Inserting into the inside at this place also offers a chance to attack the car ahead, but you must brake late, assuming the opponent doesn’t get to defend.

Sainz’s attempted attack was somewhat rushed.

Though Sainz did find an opportunity to attack before the braking point at T10, who is O’Kang?

A lion!

While his defense might be particularly aggressive with his teammates, against others, particularly on the defense-friendly Monte Carlo circuit, O’Kang’s defensive capability and desire are even stronger.