Chapter 322: Chapter 164: Master of Defense
Before entering the repair zone, Qin Miao hit the brakes hard, and his speed dropped below 80 km/h by the time he crossed the white line marking the repair zone, enabling the repair zone speed limit button on his steering wheel, and pressing halfway on the accelerator, Qin Miao maintained a cruising speed as he entered the pit stop.
Mercedes’ pit stop location was at the far right of the entrance, the first one, so Qin Miao saw his team’s staff and the signaling lights they held once he entered the pit stop.
Despite feeling nervous with a heart rate over 120, Qin Miao had practiced entering the pit stop countless times. After long periods of training, Qin Miao had developed muscle memory for tire changes, so this stop was very precise, and there was no deviation in the parking position.
Although the team’s staff did not gain any skill boost from Qin Miao, the inherent attributes of the Mercedes team were high, resulting in Qin Miao’s tire change taking 2.1 seconds, a nice achievement.
After changing to hard tires and exiting the pit, Qin Miao was 1.7 seconds behind Hamilton, while Hamilton was 16 seconds behind Verstappen. If Verstappen pits, then Hamilton’s undercut would be successful.
As Qin Miao exited the pit, Frankie’s voice came through the team radio: "Qin Miao, this out lap is crucial, as it determines whether you can undercut Verstappen."
Qin Miao didn’t respond but became highly focused after receiving the team’s message and began pushing with all his effort to improve lap times.
One lap after Qin Miao pitted, Verstappen also finally pitted.
Being undercut by Hamilton was achievable since it’s Mercedes’ openly visible strategy. If one didn’t want to be led by Mercedes, they would have to accept this silent loss.
However, if Qin Miao managed to also undercut Verstappen, then Red Bull’s strategy team would have no choice but to resign collectively.
Thus, during the second lap after Qin Miao pitted, Verstappen also made his pit stop.
Swapping medium tires for medium tires took 2.8 seconds, and after exiting, the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton remained over 7 seconds.
Verstappen was on medium tires, whereas Hamilton was on hard tires, leading to a 0.5-second gap per lap on this track, making it only a matter of time before Verstappen closed in on Hamilton.
However, there was a slight variable in the race between Verstappen and Hamilton.
That was Qin Miao, who, like his teammate Hamilton, completed the undercut on Verstappen.
The reasons were somewhat complex; on one hand, Mercedes’ tire change was 0.7 seconds faster than Red Bull’s. Initially positioned in the DRS zone behind Verstappen, Qin Miao’s out lap was quicker than Verstappen’s, allowing him to be precisely one second ahead when Verstappen exited the pit stop.
Horner and Newey combined forces to suppress the Red Bull strategy team intent on resigning and urged them to continue their work.
However, Verstappen on the track had no consolation. If he wanted to win this race, he would have to surpass Qin Miao ahead.
At this moment, the team radio from both Mercedes and Red Bull simultaneously issued commands to their drivers.
"Qin Miao, defend against Verstappen’s attacks with all your effort."
"Overtake Qin quickly, we need to catch up with Hamilton ahead."
...
After hearing this, Qin Miao shifted most of his focus to the rearview mirror, while Verstappen started accelerating. The ERS had been charged during the lap before the pit stop, and it was time to utilize it.
On lap 21, Verstappen arrived in the DRS zone behind Qin Miao and began exerting frequent pressure on him.
On Toto’s data panel, the speed gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was evident.
Though Horner, seated at the command table trackside, frowned, he wasn’t worried Qin Miao would pose any trouble for Verstappen because he knew Verstappen’s ability, allowing him to surpass Qin Miao relatively easily.
But Toto was genuinely worried because Qin Miao was lapping one second slower than Verstappen. Such a difference in a normal race allows Verstappen to overtake Qin Miao effortlessly.
Despite Qin Miao having performed well on the simulator at the Mercedes factory, those were just test data without practical experience on the racetrack.
This marked Qin Miao’s first genuine display of his defensive skills on the track, and Toto and all the Mercedes team members were quite tense.
Besides data analysts, most people paused their work, lifting their heads to watch the broadcast footage of the two cars.
At this point, the broadcaster also shifted focus to Qin Miao and Verstappen, as Qin Miao’s performance at this moment, to a certain degree, decided the ultimate champion of the race.
At T1, Verstappen already had DRS on Qin Miao, so mid-way up the start-finish straight, he took the outside line.
The reason for not going inside was mainly because Qin Miao hadn’t moved to the dirty side after exiting T15 and left some space on the racing line for Verstappen.
With a better racing line, Verstappen certainly wouldn’t miss the opportunity.
With today’s tailwind blowing against the start-finish straight, Verstappen’s slipstream effect and DRS performance were excellent, enabling him to complete the outside pass before T1’s braking point.