Chapter 1548 - 566: Just Enough

Chapter 1548: Chapter 566: Just Enough

For some reason, Qin Miao was quite happy after completing this overtaking maneuver, and his mood at this moment was almost the same as when he won the sprint race yesterday afternoon.

"Has Qin Miao finally broken the curse of never overtaking drivers ahead during the start phase?" Bing, from Five-Star Sports, said with a smile after seeing Qin Miao’s successful overtaking.

"Indeed."

"Not easy at all." The other two commentators chimed in.

After that, Zhou Haoran added, "I’ve seen Qin Miao’s onboard start videos. Actually, Qin Miao’s start speed has always been quite good, but he’s either been blocked or met with unexpected situations after his start. As a result, Qin Miao’s excellent starts this season rarely converted into positional advantages."

On the track.

After completing the overtaking of Hamilton, Qin Miao began to plan his move on Leclerc.

This wasn’t just greed.

This is called reasonable planning.

During this period after the exit of T1, Qin Miao picked up Leclerc’s slipstream.

Qin Miao’s attack plan was very simple; at this moment, Leclerc probably has Verstappen’s slipstream to use.

Relying on Leclerc’s slipstream alone to overtake him was essentially impossible, so Qin Miao thought to put pressure on Leclerc on the inside line, forcing him inside and then taking the outside line himself.

At that point, Leclerc’s exit speed from T3 would definitely be affected, allowing Qin Miao to then make a crossover move behind Leclerc.

And because Leclerc would need to defend against him, he would likely already be left behind by Verstappen.

With Leclerc’s slower exit speed and no slipstream from Verstappen, while Qin Miao exits with a crossover line, his speed would surely be faster than Leclerc.

Adding up all these advantages, Qin Miao didn’t believe Leclerc could withstand his attack.

However, Qin Miao’s idea was indeed good and it was an effective set of attack strategies.

But after spending long in the W14 muscle car, he somewhat misjudged, subconsciously thinking that the W14 was the only competitive muscle car in the paddock.

In reality, Ferrari’s power unit is also among the top in the paddock’s power unit manufacturers, and it can even be said that Ferrari’s power unit has always been the most powerful in the paddock.

In fact, the horsepower of the Ferrari engine is even higher than that of the Mercedes engine, but due to issues in aerodynamic design, Ferrari’s on-track speed does not appear as fast as Mercedes.

So, after the T1 exit, Leclerc caught onto Verstappen’s slipstream.

And because of Verstappen’s slipstream, it compensated for Ferrari’s aerodynamic disadvantages.

Leclerc not only wasn’t left behind by Verstappen but is gradually closing in on Verstappen.

As a result, Qin Miao couldn’t even manage to reduce the gap between him and Leclerc.

In fact, despite reaching this point, Qin Miao thought there was still a turn for the better.

Because even if things have come to this point, he could still go for a late braking maneuver, just like what Verstappen did to Perez during the sprint, darting inside and forcing the opponent into the runoff area outside T3.

Then, Qin Miao saw Leclerc quickly closing in on Verstappen.

And Verstappen, noticing the threat from Leclerc, ignored Leclerc’s feints, moving directly to the inside to defend.

At this point, Leclerc had two choices: either attempt an outside overtake on Verstappen or directly run into the back of Verstappen.

The choice was simple; naturally, Leclerc opted for the outside line.

While watching those two in front fighting, Qin Miao also didn’t forget to check his rear-view mirror.

After all, the straight from T1 to T3 was indeed a bit too long, and while he could utilize Leclerc’s slipstream, his teammate Hamilton behind him also had his slipstream.

Qin Miao needed to confirm that Hamilton wasn’t a threat to his position before entering the corner.

Hamilton indeed had designs on Qin Miao and had already appeared on Qin Miao’s inside line.

However, after gauging the distance between him and Hamilton, Qin Miao didn’t think much of it.

He couldn’t overtake him.

But that required he brake in the middle line of the track.

In short, without the threat from Hamilton, Qin Miao could have posed a threat to Leclerc, who was attacking Verstappen in front.

But because he was constrained by Hamilton behind him, although Qin Miao could easily fend off Hamilton’s threat, under such circumstances, Qin Miao himself lost the threat to Leclerc.

When Verstappen and Leclerc reached the T3 braking point, Verstappen didn’t shove Leclerc off the track or anything.

Because he knew his traction at the center of the corner was stronger than the Ferrari car’s, Verstappen cut through T3’s center, passing through the corner.

Though Leclerc was side by side with Verstappen at the braking point, it was basically impossible to make an outside overtake with weaker traction coming out of the corner compared to Verstappen.

Because of the threat from Hamilton, Qin Miao didn’t have a particularly good exit rhythm, barely following Leclerc’s exit out of the corner.