How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1146: Chapter 434: 77, I Want to Submit My Party Membership Application!

Qin Miao felt that the time advantage gained by making one less pit stop could help him maintain his position.

"Are you sure you’re not going to change tires? Verstappen is ready to pit for soft tires." Frankie turned back to look at the Red Bull team’s pit crew, coming out one after another with the used soft tires that had run two laps in the qualifying stage.

When Qin Miao heard Frankie say this, he had an inner struggle, but it only lasted for a moment.

"Trust me, I think I can fend off all of Verstappen’s attacks." This confidence came from Qin Miao’s 100-point defensive capability. Added to this, the speed difference on track today between him and Verstappen wasn’t as exaggerated as it was before the summer break. Even if Verstappen used soft tires in the latter part of the race, Qin Miao was confident he could lock him out on track.

Ultimately, Verstappen pitted to change tires, leaving Qin Miao outside; so after Verstappen rejoined, he ended up 10 seconds behind Qin Miao.

However, the Red Bull strategy team was quite satisfied with this pit strategy, since due to the virtual safety car, the wear on Verstappen’s soft tires wouldn’t be as serious as they imagined. With Verstappen’s skill, cautiously using this set of softs to catch up to Qin Miao shouldn’t be a big problem and completing the entire race as well.

But unlike his teammate Qin Miao’s extreme confidence, Hamilton opted to pit for tire change during the virtual safety car period.

After all, he didn’t have Qin Miao’s extraordinary tire-preserving ability, and if everyone was pitting for tire changes during the virtual safety car, the best choice was to pit with them.

Since a tire change for a tire change canceled each other out. Although it didn’t profit much compared to others, there wasn’t any loss either.

Lap 50 restarted the race.

Qin Miao began to lead.

Lap 51, all Mercedes fans were sweating for Qin Miao on the track, as Verstappen cut another 0.8 seconds from Qin Miao in just one lap.

This meant that in just 12 laps, Verstappen could catch up to the back of Qin Miao.

On lap 55, Verstappen had already reduced the gap to 4.9 seconds behind Qin Miao.

Verstappen’s chase speed was faster than everyone imagined.

Seeing this time gap, everyone could foresee that when Verstappen caught up to Qin Miao, there were definitely more than 10 laps left until the end of the race.

With the speed Verstappen was showing, catching up in the latter part of the race and overtaking Qin Miao didn’t seem too troublesome.

But then a scene that made all Red Bull fans raise their eyebrows and Dutch fans suffer heart attacks unfolded.

Midway through lap 55, as Bottas was going through the pit straight, the car slowed down, and by the time he reached Turn 1, the car’s power had completely vanished.

When the broadcast camera switched to the scene, Bottas’s car had already stopped at the T1 inner line entry point.

The spot where Bottas parked was just separated by a wall from the pit exit, and that area was a lone spot with no facilities like where Yuki Tsunoda parked, with the Matthew entrance next to it for quick track exit.

Bottas’s car failing at this position would definitely bring out a physical safety car on the track.

And it had only been 9 laps since the virtual safety car appeared.

All the drivers who could potentially fight for the championship in the front row had pitted for tire changes during the recent virtual safety car period.

Among them, only one person hadn’t pitted...

That person was Qin Miao.

"Bottas! Bottas has retired! Safety car! Retiring at this spot definitely warrants a safety car! Qin Miao has hit the jackpot, he hasn’t pitted yet!" Bing couldn’t contain his smile after seeing the current scene.

Originally, Bing was rather anxious watching this race because they could see that Qin Miao’s speed was decent, but his pace on track hadn’t matched Verstappen’s, and they were worried that today’s Qin Miao might not achieve a good result.

Just now, they also saw that Qin Miao hadn’t pitted for a tire change during the virtual safety car period.

Even though they understood why Qin Miao didn’t pit at that time, seeing Verstappen getting closer to him made the commentators at Five-Star Sports increasingly tense and worried.

And the closer the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen shrank, the more nervous they became.

Then, Bottas came to the rescue.

Bottas suddenly stopping on the track was undoubtedly Qin Miao’s biggest savior of the race.

And just after Bing finished his words, Zhou Haoran immediately added: "According to the FIA rules, Bottas’s parking spot is in the pit area, so there will be a safety car leading all drivers through the pit lane. Now the space ahead of Qin Miao is enough for him to make a pit stop in an extremely short time!"

[This is like Emperor Qin Shi Huang touching a live wire, winning it all]

[Bottas: Toto... this is my last ripple]

[I never thought there’d be a day when Alfa’s retirement would make me so happy] freewebnøvel.coɱ

[Big brother!]

[Bottas returns kindness for animosity]

[Because of this retirement, 77, you’ll always be my big brother!]

[In Alfa but heart in Mercedes!]

...

Although the commentators at Five-Star Sports finished their comments, the race committee hadn’t immediately given a safety car indication, but yellow flags appeared simultaneously at the first and third timing sectors on track.