Chapter 1489 - 543: Martin: Ferrari Playing Tricks? Now It’s My Turn!

Chapter 1489: Chapter 543: Martin: Ferrari Playing Tricks? Now It’s My Turn!

However, by lap 53, the rain intensified suddenly, and many drivers started spinning on the track because they couldn’t brake.

But Qin Miao didn’t pit to change tires on lap 53.

Though this lap would be tough, changing to rain tires now would be too early.

As the rain continued, almost every driver’s speed changed, and Qin Miao was lapping Zhou Guanyu. The situation on the track became extremely chaotic, making the Mercedes strategy group almost overwhelmed, with no time to calculate the benefits of pitting now.

Yet there are always pioneers, and Bottas and Stroll were exemplary among them.

Both of them changed to intermediate tires on lap 53, and almost all teams used these two drivers’ lap times as a reference.

Anytime these two were faster than drivers on hard tires, other teams would call their drivers in to change to rain tires.

Meanwhile, Frankie advised Qin Miao to widen the gap between him and Hamilton slightly.

It’s not that Frankie betrayed him. As the track engineer who had been with Qin Miao since F2, he was one of the few in the Mercedes team dedicated solely to Qin Miao.

Frankie suggested widening the gap because he knew it would rain heavily soon.

If the rain intensified, the team couldn’t call in one car per lap for tire changes; they would definitely call both cars in simultaneously.

Bringing both in would cause some speed loss but would be better than letting the other car run an extra lap on the track.

If Hamilton and Qin Miao were too close when both pitted, Qin Miao, being behind Hamilton, would lose out during the tire change, needing to wait until Hamilton finished his tire change.

In that time, Leclerc, who was sticking close to Qin Miao, could undercut him.

Since the loss couldn’t be avoided, widening the gap with Hamilton as much as possible would at least give Mercedes’ tire crew enough time to prepare, reducing the chance of an undercut by Leclerc in the pit area.

Speaking of Leclerc, if Qin Miao felt aggrieved, Leclerc felt more helpless in today’s race.

Leclerc had plans to confront Qin Miao aggressively on the track before the race, but after overtaking O’Kang at the start, those thoughts faded.

Because during the race, despite giving his all, Leclerc couldn’t put enough pressure on Qin Miao.

Leclerc indeed attempted some attacks.

Knowing his car cornered better than Qin Miao’s, Leclerc stuck closely at the start of the first and second timing sectors, attempting an attack in the tunnel after exiting T8.

This attack had potential because before the braking point at T10, the gap between Leclerc and Qin Miao was only 0.2 seconds.

With a late brake, Leclerc could dive inside Qin Miao for a pass, but annoyingly, Qin Miao habitually took the middle line, blocking Leclerc’s move.

This wasn’t too bad yet. Leclerc shortened the gap back to 0.2 seconds from the third timing sector until exiting T19.

Exiting the corner into the DRS zone, using Qin Miao’s slipstream and DRS, Leclerc tried another attack.

Again, Qin Miao took the middle line at T1, leaving Leclerc only two choices: force into the inside, risking going off-track or blocking Qin Miao’s path, or abandon the attack.

If Leclerc were still in a championship contention state, he’d probably find a relatively good chance to attempt a risky overtake in these 50-plus laps. But this season, Ferrari is not in championship form.

Leclerc, without urgency in the standings, and Ferrari in a rebuilding phase, wasn’t desperate for points.

Hence, Leclerc felt helpless but wasn’t fixated on Qin Miao’s defense.

He realized trying for fourth place was less beneficial than securing fifth, which was quite reasonable.

After racing behind Qin Miao for half the race, Leclerc understood that it was not him but Qin Miao who was more troubled.

Because Leclerc saw that Qin Miao’s tires were in particularly good shape, with no scuffs or bumps. Leclerc couldn’t imagine how fast he might be if he had Qin Miao’s perfect tires on his car.

Yet, even with these perfect tires, Qin Miao couldn’t deal with Hamilton ahead.

That realization balanced Leclerc’s feelings quite a bit.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao, following the team’s instructions, extended the gap with Hamilton from 1 second to 3.5 seconds.

However, while doing this, Qin Miao couldn’t help but wonder if the team was worried that staying behind Hamilton and combined with the current weather, he’d pressure Hamilton into making an error on the track.

Even though the chance of old man Hamilton making such a mistake was low, it wasn’t impossible, given the constant pressure from behind.𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂