Chapter 1493 - 544: A Thrilling End Without Danger (Part 2)

Chapter 1493: Chapter 544: A Thrilling End Without Danger (Part 2)

In the slow?motion replay, Qin Miao’s car actually had no issues at all when turning in – textbook turn?in angle, about five or six centimeters away from the pool section’s wall.

At this point some people will ask: in qualifying, wasn’t Qin Miao brushing the wall with gaps of just zero?point?something centimeters? How come he’s so far away now?

But you have to remember: qualifying is not the race. Qualifying is about chasing the limit, while the race is about long?run pace and stability.

You also have to look after the tyres, and for long?run pace the key thing is staying out on track as long as possible.

The Monaco Grand Prix is 78 laps long; there’s no way you can be that close to the wall every single lap.

Even if you were a robot, rain, gusts of wind, asphalt condition, tyre wear, fuel load and all those factors will affect the car’s speed and behavior, including your turn?in angle.

You simply cannot be that close to the wall every one of those 78 laps.

One little slip and you’ll go straight into the barrier.

In the replay, Qin Miao’s turn?in angle is exactly what you’d expect in a normal race stint, but at the apex, the broadcast shows his gap to the wall as literally zero.

And in the slow?mo you can see clearly that his car wasn’t launched by the kerb – it was the right?front tyre just barely scraping the wall, which shifted the car’s overall balance slightly to the left.

That sudden leftward shift is what further triggered the loss of control.

The casual viewer might just think this was a simple on?track incident, that Qin Miao failed to judge the distance properly.

But in reality, anyone who knows a bit about racing can tell that this was most likely side wind messing with him.

On the Mercedes side, when they checked Qin Miao’s throttle traces for that lap, they found almost no difference compared to the previous lap; chances are he got blown into the wall by the wind.

The good news comes a lap later, on lap 61: the team sees that his lap time loss is only about 0.2 seconds.

On some other tracks that kind of time loss would be a headache, but in Monte Carlo, it’s not really a problem.

And despite Qin Miao’s mistake, Leclerc behind him still didn’t manage to get past.

The window from impact to recovery was just too short; Leclerc didn’t capitalize on it.

Even though the whole incident ended up being more scare than harm, after it Qin Miao was struggling a bit to match Hamilton’s rhythm on track.

Originally there wasn’t much pace difference between them, but that 0.2?second per lap deficit opened a crack in the performance gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton.

After that chaotic phase, the race settled back to how it was at the start.

Everyone just sat in their positions and began a boring cruise.

All the drivers tiptoeing their way around Monte Carlo, scared they’d end up in the wall like Qin Miao did with one lapse of concentration.

But from the fans’ point of view, this kind of cruising is a bit dull.

Most viewers are fine with it though, because they know at the Monaco Grand Prix, cruising is the norm.

The seasoned fans are just happily replaying the earlier chaos in their heads.

Into the second half of the race, by the time they reach lap 75 the rain has stopped.

Conditions are perfectly good enough to pit for slicks, but at that point nobody is going to come in for tyres.

By now the gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton, thanks to Qin’s damaged car, has stretched to 2.1 seconds.

You could say Qin Miao no longer poses any threat to Hamilton at this stage, and behind Qin Miao the drivers stuck in the train, beyond Leclerc, now includes O’Kang thanks to Qin’s reduced pace.

And so they just unabashedly form a little train behind Qin Miao.

It’s pretty clear this race is going to end in a flat, uneventful cruise, but before that Frankie comes on the radio to tell Qin Miao: "In these last few laps, you need to pick up more rubber off the racing line."

Frankie then explains why: "We’ve got some damage on the front wing. We’re worried the car might be underweight in post?race scrutineering, so from now on go off the racing line more, try to pick up as much rubber onto the tyres as you can."

Mercedes aren’t worried that sending Qin Miao off the racing line now is going to cost him his finishing position.

If Qin Miao were going to mess that up in Monte Carlo, he wouldn’t be Qin Miao.

And Qin Miao really doesn’t let the team down.

In the last two laps he’s constantly off the racing line, cooling the tyres while hoovering up rubber from the edges of the track.

Leclerc behind is ready to pounce, trying to snatch Qin Miao’s podium while Qin’s lines look so weird.

But Qin Miao shuts down every single one of Leclerc’s attacks.

He and Hamilton finally cross the line one behind the other.

Taking third place.

Qin Miao is pretty happy once he takes the flag.

Laughing on the team radio as he thanks the crew for their help.

To be fair, after yesterday’s qualifying, Qin Miao genuinely didn’t think he’d be on the podium today – at best he figured he might gain a spot and finish fourth.

If Alonso and Leclerc hadn’t messed up, he might not have even gotten fourth, and would’ve had to settle for fifth.

But as it turns out, in key moments you don’t always need to do anything special – you just have to do your own job, and then patiently wait for your rivals to self?destruct.

In the end, the Monaco Grand Prix results and points are as follows:

P1: Verstappen +25

P2: Hamilton +19 (fastest lap)

P3: Qin Miao +15

P4: Leclerc +12

P5: Alonso +10

P6: O’Kang +8

P7: Sainz +6

P8: Gasly +4

P9: Norris +2

P10: Piastri +1

There’s not much to say about Verstappen’s win today – on a track like Monte Carlo, the Red Bull with its superior aero package is simply easier to unleash.

As for Mercedes, both drivers’ performances today were just solid and by?the?book. It’s not that they’re lacking ability; the circuit itself just caps what they can show. Getting onto the podium is already enough to comfort the Mercedes staff.

Though honestly, the fact those two are on the podium is mostly thanks to their colleagues’ clown show.

Leclerc in fourth did a decent job as well; at least compared to Qin Miao, Leclerc didn’t stick it in the wall at any point.

If the team hadn’t bricked it in qualifying, Leclerc could have taken a podium at his home race today.

If you really want to nitpick Leclerc, his only mistake today was failing to seize the chance to pass Qin Miao when Qin hit the wall.

Brother Tou was pure collateral damage – the team’s brain?dead pit strategy cost him second place.

His mood sounded fairly stable on the post?race radio, but you can’t deny that losing the podium was entirely on the Martin Team strategy department.

No need to dwell on the rest.

After the finish, Qin Miao keeps driving on the off?line sections of the track to pick up rubber, and when he’s done with the victory lap and parks the car back up, there actually isn’t that much rubber stuck to the tyres.

Rain is a different story than a dry track.

In the wet, tyre temps aren’t that high, so they don’t pick up off?line rubber that well.

But there’s still at least a bit of residue on each of Qin’s four tyres.

Eyeballing it, maybe two or three kilos.

After parking up in P3, Qin Miao climbs out of the car.

Right then Verstappen has just managed to escape from the swarm of Red Bull team personnel around him.

Verstappen’s pace today was so strong that he was parked up celebrating even earlier than Qin Miao and Hamilton.

Qin Miao doesn’t really have anything to say to Verstappen – the Red Bull’s advantage at this track is just too huge; that kind of pace is something you can’t even envy your way into.