Chapter 1491 - 543: Martin: Ferrari Pulls a Stunt? Now It’s My Turn!

Chapter 1491: Chapter 543: Martin: Ferrari Pulls a Stunt? Now It’s My Turn!

This time, Mercedes didn’t mess up the tire change, and because Hamilton had practiced earlier, Qin Miao’s tire change took only 2.1 seconds.

However, in the current state at Monaco, this 0.3 seconds advantage is useless.

After Qin Miao came out, Leclerc followed suit simultaneously.

Ferrari didn’t create any drama at their home ground for Leclerc; the tire change speed wasn’t as fast as Qin Miao’s, but still maintained at 2.5 seconds.

Back on the track, the standings among the top drivers remained unchanged.

However, just when Qin Miao thought this was just a routine pit stop, the team brought good news: "Qin Miao, Alonso just switched to a set of medium tires. Although we don’t know what Martin is thinking, this is good news for us.

If the rain intensifies, they’ll have to pit, and we can enter the podium zone.

Now, you and Hamilton push forward as much as possible to shorten your gap with Alonso."

Upon hearing this, Qin Miao brightened up. Could there really be such a lucky break?

Over the next few laps, just as Frankie mentioned, Qin Miao increased his speed and started closing in on Hamilton.

The Old Man began to accelerate to chase Alonso ahead.

After all, compared to Hamilton, Qin Miao mostly faced clear air ahead, and even when there were cars, they were slow ones that easily gave up their positions to Qin Miao.

During this period, Qin Miao suddenly noticed a yellow flag on the track.

But the yellow flag disappeared quickly.

Qin Miao didn’t ask.

Just felt a bit disappointed, as in his impression, given today’s heavy rain and 4 drivers yet to switch to rain tires, someone was bound to make a mistake and crash into the wall.

Another lap passed before Verstappen returned to the pits to change his intermediate tires.

As time progressed, the rain increased, and there was no way Verstappen could continue on track without switching to intermediate tires.

Finally, his tire change took 2.4 seconds, and when Verstappen exited the pit area, he was still in the first position.

No doubt, the advantage Verstappen had built up early on was simply too great.

Behind Verstappen, Alonso also chose to pit for a tire change this lap.

Even though Martin knew bringing Alonso into the pits now practically ended his chance for a podium today.

But if they didn’t pit, Alonso might not even reach the point-scoring zone.

It’s been mentioned that driver performance today was inferior to team strategy.

The quality during pit stop phases was the key to winning this race.

And after this pit stop, Alonso naturally found himself behind Leclerc.

In anger, the only solace Alonso might have felt was that he wasn’t behind O’Kang.

After Alonso’s pit stop, Ferrari’s two drivers also chose to pit.

These two were the last among all the front-row drivers to pit.

And when they emerged from the pit area, the track standings were as follows:

1: Verstappen

2: Hamilton

3: Qin Miao

4: Leclerc

5: Alonso

6: O’Kang

7: Sainz

8: Gasly

9: Tsunoda

10: Piastri

It’s fair to say, Qin Miao’s podium finish had nothing to do with him, as he was effectively defended by Hamilton, unable to make a move.

It was entirely thanks to his competitors.

In the Five-Star Sports studio, the three commentators and the audience felt sorry for Martin Team’s foolish pit stop strategy.

After all, all three commentators weren’t young, and Bing and Fei had some sentiments regarding these old racers in the paddock.

They genuinely hoped Alonso could win today’s race championship.

Since in the rain, anything could happen; what if Verstappen at the front suddenly crashed and retired?

Unfortunately, due to Martin Team’s foolish strategy, Alonso lost a lot of time and dropped to fifth.

Now the chances of winning shifted to Hamilton and Qin Miao, the two Mercedes drivers, instead of Verstappen.