Chapter 1556 - 568: Torpedo Spotted Starboard

Chapter 1556: Chapter 568: Torpedo Spotted Starboard

But Qin Miao didn’t care about any of that, and continued to blabber: "I’m very calm right now, calm as in I’m so damn calm!"

"This bastard Verstappen’s driving style is just inhumane! A normal driver should always leave their opponent some space on the track, and not just directly crash their main competitor off the track."

"If this is what the FIA promotes in racing sports, I suggest giving each F1 driver a bumper car modified from an F1 car. Forget lap times, let’s just see who can crash their main competitor off the track first!"

Frankie tutted, he truly didn’t expect the usually gentle Qin Miao to spit out such aggressive words after being knocked off the track by Verstappen.

The key is, he had never seen this side of Qin Miao before.

Normally, Qin Miao comes across as quite gentle and refined. Who would have thought that when provoked, Qin Miao could be so furious?

But you can’t blame Qin Miao for losing his cool this time. Anyone in such a situation, running well and then being shoved out by their main competitor, would harbor a fire in their heart.

"We will file a complaint with the race officials immediately. You don’t need to worry about being treated unfairly; Verstappen will be duly penalized."

"What’s most important now is whether you feel any changes in the car’s characteristics. Has the car’s chassis been damaged from going into the gravel? From our telemetry data, everything seems normal." Frankie reassured Qin Miao and did not forget his primary role.

The fact that Qin Miao’s championship at this race is gone is a foregone conclusion; no one can change that. At this point, Mercedes’ only hope is that Qin Miao’s car isn’t damaged.

If the car suffered damage from going off the track and had to retire, then Qin Miao wouldn’t even be able to secure second place and the 18 points that come with it.

This is something neither Qin Miao nor the team can accept.

By this time, Qin Miao had nearly reached the start-finish straight, and if there were any issues with the car, he would have noticed by now. So upon hearing Frankie’s question, Qin Miao replied, "I haven’t found any issues. If anything comes up, I’ll notify you right away."

"But Verstappen..."

"Qin Miao, Qin Miao, listen to me. Our priority right now is to finish the race and secure your 18 points. Leave the rest to us; trust that we’ll give you a satisfactory response."

Qin Miao wanted to rant a bit more, but then Toto also chimed in over the team radio, offering a word of comfort and giving Qin Miao a boost of confidence.

Even though Qin Miao would be leaving Mercedes after the next season, he was still a part of Mercedes right now.

If Qin Miao is bullied on the track, Mercedes definitely has to stand up for him.

"Okay." Qin Miao reined in his urge to rant, responding once.

Having returned to the track and found his familiar racing rhythm again, the gap between him and Verstappen had now widened to 6 seconds.

With 18 laps remaining in the race, Qin Miao really couldn’t see a possibility of catching up to and overtaking Verstappen with the remaining laps.

Unless the race officials, on a whim, increased the remaining 18 laps to 28 laps, there was no chance for him to catch up.

But still...

Meanwhile, in the Five-Star Sports studio, the three commentators remained focused on the track view following Qin Miao.

The tussle between Qin Miao and Verstappen was also under the director’s watchful eye.

Even a helicopter aerial view was following the action closely throughout.

Naturally, the collision between Qin Miao and Verstappen on the track was captured in full detail and broadcast to all the fans immediately.

The three commentators on Five-Star Sports saw everything from beginning to end.

Initially, when they saw Qin Miao making a mistake at T1, running off the track, the commentators were somewhat surprised.

Just like Verstappen, they didn’t expect someone as stable as Qin Miao to make such a relatively amateur mistake, missing the braking point.

But it didn’t matter much, the power advantage of the W14 meant that the consequences of Qin Miao’s mistake weren’t as severe as imagined.

What caught the commentators off guard, however, was that after passing the first sector, Verstappen directly knocked Qin Miao off the track at T4.

"Ah? Qin Miao was taken out by Verstappen! (Sad)"

"Verstappen! He didn’t leave any room for Qin Miao to exit the turn, and just squeezed Qin Miao straight off the track!"

"It’s over, Qin Miao’s championship is gone."

"Why is it that Verstappen could collide with Qin Miao here? And Qin Miao left almost the entire line open for Verstappen on the inside, yet Verstappen still crashed into him?"

"There’s no escaping the fact that Verstappen holds the primary responsibility for this incident, or rather, full responsibility!" Zhou Haoran said, filled with righteous indignation.

...

At this moment, the commentators on Five-Star Sports were naturally equally perplexed and enraged.

No fan can stay seated when their favorite driver gets torpedoed.

Conversely, the Dutch fans on-site reacted quite calmly, with many even standing up to cheer, setting off their orange smoke bombs in a frenzy, prematurely opening the champagne.

Seeing this scene in the broadcast, Zhou Haoran suddenly said: "This scene where Qin Miao was crashed out is somewhat reminiscent of the incident between Albon and Hamilton back in 2020. Both collisions even took place at the Austria Grand Prix and at the same corner."