Free Web NovelChapter 1196: Chapter 453: A Sudden Awakening
After sending a congratulatory text to the other party and putting away his phone, Qin Miao began preparing for the practice race.
Because of the rain this week, Mercedes’ team did not get very good data from the two practice sessions on Friday.
Therefore, today’s third practice is particularly important, as the setup found during this session will essentially determine the afternoon qualifying and Qin Miao’s performance in tomorrow’s race.
However, Qin Miao didn’t have concerns in this regard. He found a setup that felt most comfortable to him in about half an hour.
For the remainder of the time, Qin Miao focused his energy on clocking lap times.
After all, Suzuka Circuit is not an easy track for overtaking, so Qin Miao hopes to achieve a good result during qualifying.
But compared to normal qualifying, during the practice session, the team added an extra 30 liters of fuel to Qin Miao’s tank while he was clocking the fastest lap time.
With this additional 30 liters of fuel, Qin Miao’s lap time was 0.3-0.7 seconds slower than the usual fuel load during qualifying.
Even so, when the clock stopped in the third practice, Qin Miao and Hamilton still secured second and third place.
As for first place?
It’s in Verstappen’s hands.
His lap time was 0.2 seconds faster than second-place Hamilton.
It is unclear whether his car has extra fuel added.
However, the competitors’ practice results don’t really hold much reference value. Knowing approximately what speed you can achieve in qualifying is enough.
The third practice session in the morning ended.
During the time between the third practice and qualifying, Qin Miao reviewed his flying lap in the team home, while the team’s engineers were intensely focused on changing the engine and making the final adjustments to the car’s setup.
Quickly, it was time for qualifying.
Q1 doesn’t need much elaboration; Qin Miao progressed to Q2 in seventh place, and other drivers expected to advance to Q2 did not make any surprising exits at this stage.
In Q2, Zhou Guanyu perhaps awakened his bloodline power at Suzuka.
In the Q2 stage, he withstood the pressure and surpassed his idol Alonso by 0.002 seconds, squeezing into Q3 in tenth place.
Ultimately, the drivers eliminated in Q2 were Alonso, Ricardo, Bottas, Tsunoda, and Mick.
Incidentally, in this race, besides Zhou Guanyu defeating his teammate Bottas, Mick Schumacher also outperformed his teammate Magelsen.
Despite Mick still being stuck in second.
Of course, even with such achievements, the possibility of Mick Schumacher renewing his contract with Haas Team has dwindled to near zero after that crash in the practice race.
After all, compared to Magelsen, Mick Schumacher is somewhat too costly, and Haas Team is known for being a small team and not affluent.
The most crucial and pivotal point is that Mick Schumacher isn’t producing results on the F1 stage. Initially, due to his father’s influence, sponsors who held Mick Schumacher in high regard are gradually pulling their investments from Haas.
In the end, F1 is essentially a commercial league, especially after being taken over by Liberty Media Group.
No results means no money. Without money, it’s challenging to progress here.
Q3.
Qin Miao and Hamilton, the two Mercedes drivers, came out later than the drivers from other teams during their first flying lap.
Toward the end of Q1, when other drivers were doing cooldown laps, Qin Miao and Hamilton were sent out one after another.
On the Suzuka Circuit, the Mercedes car does have some compatibility issues; the overall aerodynamic effect is not very strong. Compared to Red Bull cars, the Mercedes cars at this moment resemble muscle cars.
Thus, on a track like Suzuka, with many bends, Mercedes is unable to fully utilize its engine power.
Despite Qin Miao trying his best in today’s race, this relatively unfamiliar and challenging track is ultimately not friendly to him.
Hence, after completing the first flying lap in Q3, Qin Miao only managed to secure fourth place with a time of 1:30.111.
Although Qin Miao was somewhat conservative during this flying lap, not holding back too much, even with full throttle, he only felt he could increase his lap time by 0.2-0.3 seconds.
Qin Miao had a feeling that after this flying lap, even if he runs the next flying lap more extremely, it will only enable him to bring his lap time to around 1:29.8.
The high-speed bends on Suzuka Circuit are indeed numerous, which is not suitable for the current W13B.
However, at this moment, Verstappen’s first flying lap time was 1:29.699.
Looking at the speed of the Red Bull car, Qin Miao felt really powerless.
Nevertheless, Qin Miao’s final flying lap in Q3 was faster than he anticipated. After completing this lap, Qin Miao’s time moved to 1:29.617.
However, after this flying lap, Qin Miao was only ranked fifth.
The speed of the few in front was really too fast, and Qin Miao had no solution.
Ultimately, after qualifying ended, the driver rankings were as follows:
1: Verstappen
2: Leclerc
3: Sainz
4: Hamilton
5: Qin Miao
6: Perez
7: O’Kang
8: Vettel
9: Zhou Guanyu
10: Norris
The Japanese Grand Prix’s Q3 has left domestic racing fans with mixed emotions.
If you say they feel bad internally seeing Qin Miao not performing well in the qualifying stage today... well, Zhou Guanyu’s performance in the qualifying stage shouldn’t be considered bad. Not only did he enter Q3, but he also secured the ninth starting position after qualifying ended.
