Chapter 1553 - 567: Demon Wind

Chapter 1553: Chapter 567: Demon Wind

In that moment, Qin Miao used all his accumulated knowledge to feel the current state of his race car.

However, in Qin Miao’s experience, his car felt no different from its normal state.

Whether it was the brakes or the tires, or even the aerodynamic kit on the exterior.

Everything was in its proper place, with no visible damage.

But for some unknown reason, this brake just wouldn’t stop.

The good news is that the outside line of turn T1 in the Austrian Grand Prix has a large buffer zone, and Qin Miao just missed this braking, not that his car lost the brakes entirely.

So Qin Miao only missed his best entry point for the turn and didn’t hit the apex.

After exiting the turn, Qin Miao went straight into the buffer zone on the outside of T1.

Moreover, due to track restrictions, after veering off, Qin Miao couldn’t return directly to the track and needed to re-enter through the safety channel on the outside.

As he maneuvered through the safety channel on the outside of the track, Qin Miao suddenly realized, damn it, he probably encountered a mysterious wind!

It is well known that F1 drivers are frighteningly familiar with tracks as if they were their own bedrooms.

The likelihood of them making mistakes on the track is very low.

Most top drivers’ mistakes on the track have causes, and many are due to an unexpected mysterious wind.

For Qin Miao, who had been competing in F1 for three seasons, this was the first time in his career encountering such a wind.

To be honest, this particular breeze took Qin Miao by surprise and seemed inexplicable.

He now suspects this mysterious wind was caused by local Austrian fans casting some sort of arcane spell from a dark corner.

Otherwise, there’s no reason it would affect him but not Verstappen.

On the other hand, as Verstappen caught up to Qin Miao in the DRS zone on the track, he couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious.

Just like Qin Miao wasn’t sure if his defensive skills could withstand Verstappen’s attacks for 19 laps,

Verstappen was also unsure if he could overtake Qin Miao on the track before his medium tires lost traction.

But just as Verstappen was filled with apprehension while itching to make his move behind Qin Miao, he saw Qin Miao miss the braking point.

Perhaps not so much missing the braking point, from Verstappen’s view, Qin Miao’s choice of braking point actually seemed fine.

At just a precisely extreme position to brake.

If it were his RB19, he would likely brake at that point as well, maybe just a bit more extreme due to his tire advantage, but no more than five or six meters.

Although Qin Miao’s braking method placed a significant burden on the tires, it could indeed gain some advantage.

However, what surprised Verstappen was that Qin Miao actually couldn’t stop the car...

Even though there was no tire lock issue with Qin Miao’s car, and the overall posture of the car seemed fine.

But as mentioned earlier, Qin Miao went straight outside to the safety channel of the buffer zone.

Initially, when Verstappen saw this maneuver from Qin Miao, he instinctively thought Qin Miao was once again playing weak.

After all, Qin Miao had done this quite a bit on the track, and Verstappen had fallen for Qin Miao’s tricks many times.

However, as Qin Miao shot off the track and seemingly headed for the safety channel,

Verstappen belatedly realized, damn, Qin Miao wasn’t playing weak, this was a genuine mistake!

In all honesty, when engaged in a duel with Qin Miao, Verstappen had considered Qin Miao might play dirty, use ironclad defense, or even forcefully push him off the track during an attack or even torpedo him outright.

But never did Verstappen imagine that the two-time world champion would make such a low-level mistake on the track.

Seeing Qin Miao’s voluntary error on the track felt like watching someone walking suddenly trip and fall on flat ground.

For Verstappen, this was something quite difficult to comprehend.

Yet, albeit hard to understand, knowing this was Qin Miao’s self-induced error on the track, Verstappen naturally had no reason to miss out on this golden opportunity.

Originally planning to recharge his car’s battery a bit more before making a move, Verstappen decided to go all-in with 70% battery power, opened the ERS, stepped on the gas, and his RB19 started blazing down the track.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao only had time to curse inwardly "damn wind" before quickly straightening his car and activating all systems available.

He began to accelerate out of the corner at full speed.

It’s worth noting that because Verstappen was quite a bit behind Qin Miao when he went off the track, about 0.7 seconds away,

Thus, when they both straightened their cars and began accelerating out of the corner, it happened synchronously.

At that moment, both cars were in exactly the same relative position, starting from the same angle.

This ended up being a rare spectacle in the paddock, two different cars, two different engines engaging in a pure horsepower showdown on the track.