How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1184: Chapter 448: A Fortuitous Mistake

Although the Mercedes team was ready for Qin Miao to pit for a tire change, and even Hamilton, who had been leading for almost the entire race, chose to pit and switch to medium tires on this lap, Qin Miao still decided to refuse.

After all, Qin Miao is the one driving, and even if the team opposes, they can’t just pull Qin Miao out of the car.

So the Mercedes team could only watch helplessly as Qin Miao drove past the pit lane entrance.

At this moment, Qin Miao’s thought was straightforward: for some reason in today’s race, Leclerc’s condition was noticeably better than at any other time, whether it be overall speed stability or pressure endurance.

This means that Qin Miao’s skills were completely ineffective against Leclerc.

So, if Qin Miao followed Leclerc’s rhythm and pitted for a tire change at the same time as him, Qin Miao would still be behind Leclerc after the tire change.

That would be meaningless.

Qin Miao still wanted to win the championship in this race, not just to beat his friend Leclerc, but also because it was rare to have a race where Verstappen was in such poor form.

Qin Miao wanted to capitalize on Verstappen’s poor performance to score more points.

Thus, Qin Miao wanted to stay on the track, and since there was no obstruction from Leclerc ahead, Qin Miao felt that he could fully push for two laps before Leclerc’s tire temperature came up, using up all the remaining life of this set of tires before pitting for a tire change.

So on the lap after Leclerc pitted, Qin Miao began to fully push.

However, the track conditions at this moment were much better than usual, so all drivers and teams noticed that after one lap, the average lap speed of drivers using intermediate tires was more than 1 second slower than those using dry tires.

Upon seeing this data, the commentators at Five-Star Sports instantly felt a chill in their hearts.

"Why isn’t the team calling Qin Miao to pit?" Fei, in his limited understanding of the situation, began questioning the Mercedes team.

Even after learning that it was Qin Miao who requested it, Fei was still indignant and felt that the team’s call for Qin Miao to pit wasn’t strong enough.

But you know how it is when you’re protective.

"Yeah, the team should’ve been more assertive at this time." Bing agreed from the side.

At this moment, Zhou Haoran was anxiously watching Verstappen’s performance.

After all, although it seemed that Hamilton had been leading this race, and Qin Miao’s main competition was Leclerc ahead of him.

But in reality, whether the championship of this grand prix fell into the hands of Hamilton or Leclerc didn’t matter, what was truly related to Qin Miao’s interests was whether not pitting would leave Qin Miao behind Verstappen.

On the track, after one lap, Qin Miao realized that even with full effort, he could only manage to barely maintain the time gap between himself and Leclerc without letting Leclerc pull too far ahead.

But this information was only known to Qin Miao when he crossed the line on lap 36.

So if Qin Miao wanted to rectify his mistake, he had to pit at the end of lap 36.

Honestly, even at this point, Qin Miao felt half-heartedly discouraged.

"Qin Miao, this stubbornness really caused a mess this time!" Zhou Haoran said helplessly and regretfully: "Now Leclerc’s lap speed is 0.5 seconds faster than Qin Miao, and Verstappen is also faster than Qin Miao. Even Perez behind Qin Miao has already undercut him.

By not listening to the team’s advice this time, he at least lost two positions on the track."

"Ah, now we can only hope that Qin Miao’s attempt to mend the fold isn’t too late," Bing also sighed regretfully.

Fei shook his head and said, "Let’s see what Qin Miao’s speed is like on this lap, whether he’ll end up behind Verstappen when he comes out of the pit lane..."

On the track, Qin Miao also realized he’d gotten carried away.

Now, of course, he regretted it. He didn’t know why, after hearing the team’s instructions in this race, unlike every other race before, he wanted to follow his own thoughts and rhythm instead of the team’s requirements.

As all of Qin Miao’s fans sighed in regret, and everyone on the team remained silent.

Suddnely on the track, a yellow flag appeared at the second sector.

Yuki Tsunoda, who had just come out of the pit lane with fresh medium tires, appeared in the broadcast images, along with his little Red Bull car stuck in the barrier cushioning on the side of the track.

Seeing this image, the three Five-Star Sports commentators were silent for a moment, then immediately cheered: "Yuki Tsunoda crashed!"

"Qin Miao! Qin Miao can take this opportunity to pit for a tire change now!"

"Perfect timing, perfect position, if Qin Miao pits now, he’ll be first! His actual position will be first! He undercut drivers including his teammate Hamilton."

"The barrier cushion has been knocked down by Yuki Tsunoda! The stewards will definitely deploy the safety car to repair the barrier! What an opportunity! What an opportunity!"

"Hahaha, Qin Miao is actually benefiting from the misfortune!"

"Is there a possibility that Qin Miao calculated this scenario, he didn’t pit because he was gambling! After all, the track conditions weren’t very good right now, and the track temperature hardly reached the normal working temperature for medium tires."