Chapter 1511: Aftereffects of Car Damage (Part 2)

The slightest change in resistance brings a world of difference to the driving sensation.

According to Qin Miao’s own experience, after the W14 was damaged, the resistance on the right side was significantly greater than on the left, so when driving at high speeds on the straights, Qin Miao had to slightly steer to the left, or else the car would veer to the right.

Luckily, this wasn’t too much of an inconvenience and was barely noticeable in medium to low-speed corners.

At the same time, the wear rate of Qin Miao’s tires on both sides changed, because the airflow from the end plate on the right side was missing, causing the tires on the right side to be hotter while the tires on the left side were cooler.

Therefore, the wear on the right-side tires was greater than on the left.

If the front wing end plate hadn’t been damaged, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen wouldn’t be so large, and Qin Miao’s set of soft tires could have lasted at least three more laps on the track.

But things have come to this, and these words are of no use now.

Entering the pit stop, changed to new tires, took about 2.2 seconds, which is a normal tire change speed for the Mercedes team, but including the time taken to change the front wing, Qin Miao’s total pit stop time was 7.1 seconds (War Thunder Racers were enraged).

After Qin Miao came out of the pit lane, he couldn’t maintain second place and dropped to third.

The time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was now 11.6 seconds, and the gap with Hamilton was 3.3 seconds.

At this point, there were 39 laps left in the race.

Back on the track, Qin Miao’s lap speed was 0.5 seconds slower than Hamilton’s, and 0.3 seconds slower than Verstappen’s.

The slower time compared to Old Man was because he was using medium tires; later, Qin Miao’s speed would gradually surpass Hamilton’s. The slower pace compared to Verstappen was purely due to car performance differences, as both were using hard tires, and there wasn’t much Qin Miao could do about that.

Just waiting for Verstappen’s second pit stop.

As for why Qin Miao was so sure Verstappen would make a second pit stop…

Qin Miao truly didn’t believe Verstappen would try to complete the race on one set of hard tires like Qin Miao.

Not to mention whether he could overtake Verstappen, the five-second penalty on Verstappen’s end put Qin Miao in an unassailable position.

After all, Qin Miao’s miraculous tire management was well known throughout the F1 paddock, and if Verstappen truly only did one pit stop, Qin Miao just needed to use the tire advantage in the later stages to close within five seconds behind Verstappen and comfortably win the split race championship.

Therefore, neither the Red Bull team nor Verstappen himself would choose such an unwise pit stop strategy.

After the top three drivers left the pit lane, they all began their own race pace, and it was hard for the three of them to get into any fighting within a short period.

The focus of the upcoming race was on the mid-tier points-zone entrance battle.

Zhou Guanyu was in deadlocked combat with Tsunoda and Hockenheim at the entrance to the points zone, drawing everyone’s focus.

It seems Qin Muqiu’s godfather wanted to put on a show in front of his goddaughter.

Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo car finally found a track that suited him.

Because of Alfa Romeo’s long-standing gearbox issues, the C43’s acceleration capability had always been criticized.

However, after the Catalonia track was revised, it suited the C43’s car characteristics very well.

Because the third timing sector provided the C43 with an extremely long time for acceleration and slipstream, combined with the Ferrari engine’s late acceleration ability and the DRS of the car in front.

Zhou Guanyu contributed many overtaking moments on this track.

On another side, in the 45th lap, Qin Miao’s lap speed finally matched Hamilton’s.

And in the 46th lap, his lap speed was faster than Hamilton’s, matching Verstappen’s.

When the race reached the 50th lap, Qin Miao closed the gap on Hamilton by 2.3 seconds, getting into Old Man’s DRS zone.

Just as all the spectators expected the Mercedes drivers to start fighting on the track again, as they did at the start of the race.

Mercedes called Hamilton into the pit lane.

Seeing this scene, the spectators who were hoping for a show became upset.

While Hamilton’s fans felt he faced unfair treatment on the track.

After all, the scene on the field looked very much like the Mercedes team was deliberately clearing obstacles on the track for Qin Miao.

But in fact, Hamilton’s tires were indeed not in good shape at this lap, and the Mercedes team’s strategy group had predetermined this was the time for Hamilton’s pit stop.

It was just that the timing happened to coincide with Qin Miao catching up behind Hamilton.

After Old Man pitted, Qin Miao returned to his original position, and the time gap between him and Verstappen remained at 9.9 seconds.

Qin Miao was only slightly faster per lap than Verstappen now.

At this time, Verstappen and the Red Bull strategy team started discussing.

Should Verstappen slow down a bit to start managing his tires, preparing to defend against Qin Miao who has a tire advantage later on, or should they stick to the original pit stop strategy, change to fresh tires, and attack Qin Miao on the Catalonia track, which is particularly good for overtaking.

The Red Bull team was actually more inclined to choose the latter.

Because according to the team strategy group’s calculations, the latter was the fastest overall timing pit stop strategy for Verstappen today, naturally the fastest choice.

Moreover, the Red Bull strategy group had full confidence in the performance of the Red Bull RB19, knowing that with DRS, the RB19’s top speed was surely much faster than the Mercedes W14. The RB19 could use its absolute speed advantage to crush the W14.

In fact, they’ve done so many times already.

The Red Bull strategy group’s only concern was Qin Miao’s otherworldly defensive skills.

Could Verstappen break through Qin Miao’s defense?

However, today’s attack strategy decision was still in Verstappen’s hands.

Strictly speaking, Verstappen’s status within Red Bull was somewhat similar to that of Qin Miao, who would join Ferrari next season.

Although Verstappen’s status within the team wasn’t as high as Qin Miao’s, he was akin to a future Qin Miao at Ferrari.

Ultimately, the decision power fell into Verstappen’s own hands.

When the team asked Verstappen about this, he immediately replied, “I want to BOX.”

The meaning was clear: Verstappen had full confidence in his attack strategy, believing he could catch up with Qin Miao in the later stages of the race and take advantage of his huge speed advantage to defeat Qin Miao.

Moreover, this wasn’t unprecedented; Verstappen had broken through Qin Miao’s defense a few times this season, and in his view, today’s race wouldn’t be an exception.

In Verstappen’s view, he already understood Qin Miao well enough and had thought of ways to counter Qin Miao’s defensive prowess.

“Qin Miao, Verstappen made a second pit stop; our chance has come.” Frankie informed Qin Miao over the team’s TR immediately after Verstappen pitted for a tire change.

Upon hearing this, Qin Miao asked, “How far will he be behind me when he exits the pit lane?”

“6.2 seconds. If Red Bull’s tire change for Verstappen goes without a hitch, we have a 6.2-second advantage.”

…

On the track, after communicating with his team, Verstappen entered the pit lane in the 52nd lap.

This race weekend was a stunning display for Red Bull, not only with their leading driver Verstappen in hot form but even their tire-changing personnel maintained exceptional speed and stability.

A seamless 2.1-second tire change allowed Verstappen to safely navigate this race weekend’s sole risk point, that is, the final pit stop.

As Frankie said, Verstappen came out of the pit lane and found himself 6.5 seconds behind Qin Miao.

With 14 laps remaining in the race.

Assuming Verstappen could close one-second deficits each lap from here onwards, Qin Miao would end up owing Verstappen 8 seconds by the end of the race.