How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1203: Chapter 454: Inviting the God

Honestly, there was a moment when Qin Miao was really worried that the cars behind would torpedo him because they couldn’t see his car’s position clearly.

After all, when he looked in the rearview mirror, Qin Miao couldn’t see anything, just a vast expanse of whiteness.

Of course, at such a tense and exciting start, Qin Miao couldn’t possibly focus all his attention on the rearview mirror.

So after a quick glance, Qin Miao focused most of his attention on Sainz ahead of him.

In today’s race, perhaps due to excessive pressure or maybe just his inherent skill level, Sainz’s start was not great.

The time gap between Qin Miao and Sainz was rapidly decreasing after the start.

To Qin Miao’s surprise, when he moved to the outside line, Sainz did not come over to squeeze him, and continued to accelerate on the middle line of the track.

After a moment of surprise, Qin Miao quickly realized that Sainz’s vision was being interfered with by the spray kicked up by the cars, otherwise he would have come to squeeze him on the outside line.

However, even though Qin Miao was rapidly closing in on Sainz, he only managed to get to within one meter behind Sainz before the braking point at T1.

Although Qin Miao’s braking control was top-notch, the rain obviously limited his ability to perform in that aspect.

At this moment, Sainz noticed Qin Miao beside him, as he was indeed fooled by the directionality of Qin Miao’s car intentionally set up at the start.

So Sainz shifted all his attention to Qin Miao.

Thus, when Qin Miao was preparing to brake on the outside line, Sainz didn’t even notice another Mercedes car on the inside line.

It wasn’t until just before the braking point that Sainz noticed the Mercedes car side by side with him on the inside line, but he was too late, as his best line into the turn was blocked by Hamilton on the inside.

If Sainz continued to enter the corner according to his original pace, if he insisted, there were only two possible outcomes for him: either collide with Hamilton’s car, losing traction on their tires in such extreme conditions and crashing together.

Or slide off the track due to missing the braking point and the best line into the turn.

At this moment, Sainz remained calm and chose to slow down.

And with this deliberate easing off the throttle, Hamilton not only maintained his position on the inside, but Qin Miao on the outside also benefited.

Qin Miao was already on the outside line’s path, and with Sainz slowing down, Qin Miao, who was not yet level with Sainz on the outside, climbed alongside on the outside.

The left front wheel behind Sainz’s right front wheel.

Seeing this, Sainz was also very decisive; he ignored Hamilton on the inside and drove his car to the outside, as he didn’t want Qin Miao to take the position so easily.

This time Sainz’s defense against Qin Miao wasn’t very subjective in intent, mainly because Hamilton had already completely overtaken Sainz on the inside, and Qin Miao hadn’t yet fully overtaken Sainz on the outside.

If Sainz defended against Qin Miao at this point, he might still hold onto a position, but if he engaged with Hamilton on the inside, he might lose two positions directly.

Qin Miao was not one to back down, seeing this he naturally wouldn’t yield an inch.

However, as the two went wheel to wheel into T2, a yellow flag suddenly appeared in the first timing sector.

With the yellow flag, overtaking the car in front is prohibited.

That means if Qin Miao forcibly seized the position at risk at this time, the race officials would call Qin Miao to give the position back.

So Qin Miao didn’t manage to gain a position with this start; instead, Hamilton entered the podium after the start.

This might just be what they call "while the clams and cranes fight, the fisherman profits."