How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1182: Chapter 447: Gamblers Die Miserably

Meanwhile, due to Zhou Guanyu’s car stopping on the track, although Zhou Guanyu deliberately parked his car at the exit of Matthew’s way, the location was precisely on the racing line into Turn 5, directly facing it.

Bianqi’s accident was right in front, and there was rain on the track, so the race committee didn’t consider much and directly deployed the safety car.

Singapore once again continued its record of deploying a safety car in every race since its inception.

After this safety car period, the time gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc shrank from 2 seconds to 1 second.

Although the reduction wasn’t substantial, it was still good news, as the gap between them was wiped out again.

The safety car lasted from lap 8 to lap 11, and the race then restarted.

Qin Miao didn’t manage to gain anything from Leclerc at the start; despite Leclerc’s bad luck, his defensive skills were undoubtedly exceptional.

Qin Miao didn’t hesitate, flicking a skill over Leclerc’s head, and started putting pressure on him, looking for opportunities.

Leclerc Pressure Level: [11%]

While Qin Miao was reducing the time gap behind Leclerc, Qin Miao knew today he was faster than Leclerc, albeit not by much.

He had the opportunity to overtake Leclerc.

On the other side, after the restart, Verstappen immediately utilized his car’s performance to overtake Vettel ahead of him.

This overtaking didn’t have much to say about it; Hamilton’s starting position happened to be a favorable exit position for Verstappen, and Red Bull’s car performance was markedly better than Aston Martin’s.

Moreover, the straight after the exit provided Verstappen with ample time to accelerate.

Although no one mentioned it, essentially all teams knew that Red Bull’s car had the lowest drag coefficient on the straight this season.

Ultimately, Verstappen overtook Vettel, reaching 9th place.

In the 11th lap, Gasly from the Toro Rosso team let Verstappen pass, allowing Verstappen’s position to rise to 8th.

After all, both cars were from the Red Bull team, and blocking Verstappen behind at this moment was unnecessary.

Even if Gasly wanted to block, Toro Rosso would surely instruct him to give way.

After that, in front of Verstappen was Alonso, who had written the Hamilton Defense Overview.

Despite Qin Miao’s defensive prowess earlier, Alonso’s defensive skills were also renowned.

Moreover, the defensive difficulty at Marina Bay compared to Hengelo was equally challenging, and Renault and Red Bull had no familial ties.

So it’s evident that Alonso would put up a strong defense against Verstappen in the following period.

After all, as the Chinese saying goes, "On a rainy day, beat the child; it’s idle to do otherwise."

Currently, Alonso couldn’t catch up to Sainz ahead, and was being pulled away by Sainz constantly.

Thus, Alonso had no psychological burden regarding race completion ranking; he only aimed to secure his current position and gain more broadcast visibility to find a good team once he left Renault.

Regarding Brother Tou’s seat, this year’s Alpine was peculiar, with ongoing issues from their self-developed engines, and the standing for O’Kang and Alonso was remarkably clear.

Being a French team, Alpine’s management, though never explicitly stated, clearly sided with O’Kang in their internal competition.

Alonso couldn’t endure this and decided not to stay at Alpine next season.

Alonso needs to prove his worth and state.

Subsequently, on the track, starting from lap 12 when Verstappen was within one second behind Alonso, Alonso defended fiercely until lap 21.

Alonso gracefully defended against Verstappen on the track for a full 9 laps, delaying Verstappen by over 7 seconds.

Defending Verstappen for 9 laps wasn’t Alonso’s limit but rather the limit of Renault’s car.

The only reason Alonso defended Verstappen for 9 laps was that in lap 21, at Turn 10, Alpine’s self-developed engine encountered a failure, forcing Alonso to retire helplessly.

When the race director replayed Alonso’s communication with the team, it was clearly heard, Alonso: "engine."

However, this time, Alonso’s communication with the team lacked a familiar adjective.

Regardless, the Renault-developed F1 engine was arguably only slightly better than Honda’s in the past.

Despite a nearly unlucky race, Verstappen was fortunate once when Alonso’s car failure locked him from progressing.

Now Verstappen moved to 7th place, with a time gap of 3 seconds to Norris ahead, followed by Sainz and then his teammate Perez.

Moreover, Alonso’s retirement unexpectedly triggered a safety car, albeit a virtual safety car.