How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1149: Chapter 435: Home Victory (6K, Bonus Update 8/17)

Verstappen has no choice.

Originally, he thought this attack would just be a position battle between himself and Qin Miao, a fair 1V1.

But he didn’t expect that the Mercedes guys would play dirty, resorting to two against one on the track.

Shameless!

Of course, though Verstappen was cursing internally, deeply furious, he couldn’t riskily try to force his way between Qin Miao and Hamilton.

After all, Verstappen knew well about Qin Miao’s tough defense; if he dared to squeeze in, Qin Miao would definitely push back hard.

At the same time, Verstappen didn’t dare to press on the grass to overtake Hamilton on the outside line.

Once going wide onto the grass, Verstappen couldn’t guarantee that he could control the car stably.

One mistake, and he might retire from the race right there.

The Dutch Grand Prix is Verstappen’s home race; if he retired here, he would feel bad for his Dutch fans on site.

However, Verstappen’s inner desire to surpass Qin Miao hadn’t diminished because the upcoming T2 is a 180-degree right hairpin.

If he slightly pressured Qin Miao’s exit line on the outside, it’s likely that he could achieve a faster exit speed on the broader outside line, thus overtaking Qin Miao.

However, Qin Miao, currently recognized within the entire F1 paddock as the driver with the strongest defensive skills, could surely see through what Verstappen was planning, staying beside him and fighting side by side.

Qin Miao went straight for a late braking at the T2 braking point, completely missing the brake point.

The effect was that Qin Miao directly dashed ahead of Verstappen while entering the corner.

Though the late braking seemed reckless, there’s no recklessness in Qin Miao’s defense.

His car didn’t completely pass Verstappen at the braking point but aligned his left rear wheel with Verstappen’s right front wheel, keeping Verstappen on the outside and preventing him from taking a crossover line.

Entering T2, having missed the corner apex, Qin Miao took a wide entry and exit line.

But even so, on the outside line, Verstappen now either had to decelerate to avoid Qin Miao and take the crossover line or continue to stay on the outside line.

No matter how Verstappen chose, Qin Miao had thoroughly disrupted Verstappen’s exit rhythm.

After all, Verstappen planned to forcefully overtake Qin Miao on the outside, with all preparations serving this tactic.

Seeing this, Verstappen could only grit his teeth and stick to his original strategy, taking the outside line ready to overtake Qin Miao. freewēbnoveℓ.com

But upon reaching the outside, Verstappen encountered a classic battle for line rights.

After exiting the corner, Qin Miao used the track width fully, preparing to ride the curb.

At this moment, Verstappen really wanted to hit Qin Miao’s right rear with his left front, directly sending this sly one flying.

But Qin Miao controlled his car’s position well, precisely aligning his left rear wheel with Verstappen’s right front wheel.

Even if Verstappen wanted to hit Qin Miao, he couldn’t; their wheel arches might just bump.

Thus, Qin Miao maintained his position.

After Verstappen’s attack ended, a sigh of disappointment erupted among the Dutch crowd.

The reason was naturally because Verstappen couldn’t surpass Qin Miao in one go.

But the domestic commentators were genuinely delighted, each lavishly praising Qin Miao.

"Beautiful defense, Qin Miao, now there are only 10 laps left until the race ends," Frankie praised Qin Miao while informing him of how much longer he had until the race was over.

Though Qin Miao heard, he didn’t respond to it.

His attention remained on Hamilton ahead of him.

Although he had just defended against a very threatening attack from Verstappen, due to taking less than ideal entry and exit lines while defending, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton widened to 1.2 seconds.

Out of Hamilton’s DRS zone.

Right then, Verstappen was merely 0.8 seconds behind Qin Miao.

He was only threatened to be pushed off the track by Qin Miao, not actually pushed off, so his speed loss wasn’t significant.

Though Verstappen might be dropped out of Qin Miao’s DRS zone, F1 cars can still catch the slipstream of the car ahead within a second.

Couple that with Red Bull’s speed on straights, Qin Miao figured Verstappen would catch up soon.

Hence, Qin Miao didn’t lower his guard. freёwebnovel.com

In Qin Miao’s estimation, if he wanted to finish ahead of Verstappen in today’s race, he needed to fend off Verstappen 2-3 more times.

As for surpassing Hamilton, letting the Old Man defend against Verstappen for a while, taking advantage of that time to widen the gap with Verstappen...

This is indeed a tactic, possibly a great strategy, which could increase Qin Miao’s chances of winning the race from 50% to 80%.