Chapter 1552 - 567: Demonic Wind

Chapter 1552: Chapter 567: Demonic Wind

Such a perfect pit window, the drivers behind Qin Miao obviously weren’t going to miss it either.

So most of the drivers chose to pit for fresh tyres under the yellow flag.

As for Verstappen...

He actually missed the optimal pit timing, but a yellow flag is not a safety car. After doing one lap on track, Verstappen boxed on the next lap, and he still came out in P1.

It’s just that the gap that had been close to 4 seconds between him and Qin Miao was cut down to 1.8 seconds.

After the yellow flag ended, nothing much happened on track.

Instead, off-track factors became the biggest highlight of the mid-to-late stages of this race.

The FIA absolutely lost it on this circuit, handing out penalties like they were free.

Of course, saying the penalties are "free" isn’t wrong, because for the FIA, issuing penalties really doesn’t cost them anything; on the contrary, after they issue a penalty, the drivers have to pay them.

Corruption method +1

...

Of course, this time the penalties weren’t fines, they were mainly time penalties on track.

The reason was that quite a few drivers went off the track at T9 and T10.

Nothing they could do about it, those two corners are just too fast. One tiny lapse in concentration or going in a bit too hot, and you’re very likely to run off the track.

And after running on the circuit for a long time, a lot of drivers will habitually use the style they find most comfortable, which means after exiting T10 they’ll instinctively run wide off the track to maximise the width on exit.

But most drivers might only make one or two mistakes like that; after the team reminds them, they’ll definitely rein it in.

Today though, Lord was just on another level. According to the post-race stats, he exceeded track limits 8 times in this race and got a total of 15 seconds in penalties.

Because of that, Tsunoda, who originally had a decent position, got dumped straight to the back of the field by that 15-second time penalty.

Besides him, another one who received a 5-second penalty was Qin Miao’s teammate Hamilton.

Because of that 5-second penalty, when Old Man pitted on lap 42 and came back out, he was dropped straight behind Sainz.

His podium got confiscated on the spot.

Of course, Old Man still had a chance to claw it back later on.

And with Hamilton out of the way, the driver behind Qin Miao became Leclerc.

At this point, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was 12 seconds.

Another 7 laps passed and by lap 49, Verstappen had extended the gap to 15 seconds.

On that same lap, Verstappen pitted and bolted on a set of mediums.

He rejoined 4 seconds behind Qin Miao.

Now Qin Miao had to defend with a set of hard tyres that had already done 28 laps against Verstappen’s brand-new mediums.

To be honest, it was no easy task to try and hold Verstappen off.

"Alright, we can see Verstappen has just completed his final stop, and the real climax of this race starts now."

"Now it all comes down to Qin Miao; if he can defend, he’s taking this round’s win."

...

After Verstappen finished his stop and exited the pit lane, almost every eye in the place locked onto him.

Because everyone understood that the real main event of today’s race only truly began once Verstappen completed his final stop.

"Qin Miao, Max has exited the pits."

"How far is he from me?"

"4.3. The Red Bull is just insanely quick this race."

Hearing that, Qin Miao let out a helpless sigh. Verstappen, racing on home soil, really was something else.

In a normal two-stop race, after Verstappen’s last stop he’d usually rejoin more than ten seconds behind Qin Miao; today it was straight-up 4.3.

Who wouldn’t be baffled seeing that.

"How much quicker is he per lap than me?"

Frankie glanced at the data and said, "Hold on, we’re calculating."

After two sectors, Frankie finally replied, "He’s 0.9 seconds a lap faster. We expect Verstappen to enter your DRS zone on lap 52."

Qin Miao clicked his tongue. So basically, he had to use a set of hards to defend against Verstappen on mediums for a full 19 laps.

Even though Qin Miao considered his own defensive skills to be unmatched in the paddock, he still couldn’t help feeling a bit of a headache.

Next up, Qin Miao just kept cruising, waiting for Verstappen to catch up.

But as time went on, Verstappen’s rate of closing in didn’t quite match Frankie’s predictions.

Verstappen only entered the DRS zone behind Qin Miao on lap 53.

At that point there were 18 laps to go in the race.

The battery on Qin Miao’s car was at 80% charge.

After studying Verstappen’s attack patterns from the previous race, Qin Miao already had a rough defensive gameplan to counter Verstappen’s approach.

And that 80% charge was exactly where his confidence came from.

But, as expected, something unexpected happened on track.

At least for Qin Miao, it was unexpected.

On lap 52, after blasting down the main straight to start lap 53, Qin Miao chose a rather late braking point into T1.

After all, Qin Miao didn’t have any issues with tyre life. Choosing a later braking point while defending against Verstappen helped him use the rear-view mirrors to judge Verstappen’s moves and gave him enough time to react.

A later braking point also helped improve Qin Miao’s lap time.

So when Qin Miao hit the brakes, he was still a bit far from Verstappen’s car.

Originally, that wasn’t a big deal; it was just a standard corner, no different from any other time they’d gone through it in this Grand Prix.

But after Qin Miao braked exactly at the point he’d calculated, he was horrified to discover that his car didn’t slow down.