Free Web NovelChapter 1106: Chapter 421: Champion Before the Summer Break
Qin Miao was also somewhat surprised, after all, Verstappen had quietly reduced the time gap between them to such a small margin.
The opponents had also been hiding a lot.
In the later stages of the race, a light rain started to fall in some parts of the track.
However, in the end, the drizzle couldn’t form a trend and did not leave much water on the track, so naturally, it couldn’t interfere with Qin Miao’s driving.
Despite Verstappen praying countless times in his heart for the heavens to start raining quickly, all he got in response was an increasingly darker sky, with the rain always falling but never truly pouring down.
In the 64th lap, Hamilton overtook Sainz in front of him and moved into third place.
After Hamilton completed the overtake on Sainz, the top three positions in this race were already set.
With Mercedes finishing in first and third places, it could be said that Mercedes won this race completely.
At the same time, the on-site director astutely switched to Mercedes’ P-room, focusing on Toto.
At this moment, Toto had a very satisfied smile on his face, but since the race had not yet finished entirely, he held back his expressions, not letting his smile get too out of hand.
After all, at this moment, the sky above the track was getting darker, and it wasn’t hard to see from the weather radar that a large rain cloud was moving towards the track. The possibility of rain was present at any time.
Knowing that Qin Miao was weak in the rain, Toto was still somewhat worried that Qin Miao might lose his race win due to the rain.
Even though the head of the meteorological department had clearly told Toto that it was unlikely to rain on the track before the end of the race.
At the end of the race, all the team executives were staring at the weather radar, either waiting for a final rain or praying for it not to rain.
However, neither scenario appeared on the track. Instead, in the 68th lap, Bottas’ car stopped on the track due to a power unit failure.
And because Bottas’ car stopped at a congested location between the second and third timing sectors in the slow corner, it didn’t have much momentum to push the car to the Matthew gate.
Also, the place where he stopped was a bit far from the Matthew entrance.
As a result, to avoid a secondary accident, a virtual safety car was issued for what a yellow flag could have solved.
But at this point, there were only two laps left in the race, so barring any surprises, the final rankings of this race were already decided.
The final results were naturally the current standings of the drivers.
In fact, the race restarted on the 69th lap.
And the rain on the track also began to increase.
However, in the end, there was no change in the position of the drivers who crossed the finish line compared to when the virtual safety car was in place.
In the end, Qin Miao started from pole position and brought home the win, achieving his fifth Pole to win in his career.
After this race, the driver rankings and scores are as follows:
P1: Qin Miao +25
P2: Verstappen +18
P3: Hamilton +15 (fastest lap)
P4: Sainz +12
P5: Perez +10
P6: Leclerc +8
P7: Norris +6
P8: Alonso +4
P9: O’Kang +2
P10: Vettel +1
Qin Miao’s championship win speaks for itself, a testament to his absolute tire management ability and long-distance speed stability.
Steady and fast, once again elevating the Mercedes car to a level that it doesn’t belong.
Hamilton’s fastest lap came because of the speed performance of the soft tires he swapped to during the latter stage of the race.
O’Kang, who defended like a lion against Alonso for the entire race, didn’t manage to hold his position and ended up finishing ninth, just behind Alonso, earning two points.
Zhou Guanyu, meanwhile, wasn’t as strong in this race as he used to be.
And not just Zhou Guanyu; Bottas’ speed was not fast in this race, and neither Alfa Romeo driver managed to enter the points.
Casual viewers might be confused, but seasoned F1 veterans know it’s because Alfa Romeo’s advantage has expired.
Other teams’ car upgrades have gradually taken effect, while Alfa Romeo’s upgrade impact was unremarkable, failing to offset the increased speed from other teams’ upgrades, thus losing their competitive edge.
Meanwhile, after this race, the overall driver standings are as follows:
1: Qin Miao .224
2: Verstappen .199
3: Leclerc .164
4: Perez .160
5: Sainz .117
6: Hamilton .110
7: Norris .64
8: O’Kang .56
9: Bottas .38
10: Alonso .27
11: Magelsen .19 freёwebnovel.com
12: Zhou Guanyu .19
13: Gasly .15
14: Vettel .15
15: Ricardo .14
16: Tsunoda .9
17: Mick .6
18: Stroll .2
19: Albon .1
The team standings are as follows:
1: Red Bull: 379
2: Mercedes: 377
3: Ferrari: 304
4: Alpine: 95
5: McLaren: 78
6: Alfa Romeo: 64
7: Haas: 25
8: AlphaTauri: 24
9: Aston Martin: 18
10: Williams: 1
After this race, the points gap between Mercedes and Red Bull is down to just 2 points.
With such a close points gap heading into the summer break, it’s likely that Red Bull’s team engineers will have difficulty sleeping.
Expect Horner, Newey, and the rest of Red Bull’s upper management to be anxious and worried about this throughout the entire summer break.
Of course, these matters are not something Qin Miao and the Mercedes team need to consider right now.
Under the waving checkered flag, after crossing the finish line, Qin Miao, whose adrenaline had been surging the entire race, finally had a moment to take a deep breath.
