How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 937 371: Qin the Train Driver, Defense Master, Red Bull's Greatest Nemesis, Miao_2

After catching sight of Verstappen's retired car out of the corner of his eye, Qin Miao's eyes immediately lit up. Damn! One down! There's a chance now!However, Qin Miao didn't rush. His first move was to ask over the team radio: "What's the status of my tires?"

Frankie, understanding Qin Miao's intentions, quickly responded: "Very good, they can last the remaining distance. You've taken excellent care of your tires. You can confidently defend against Perez behind you in the upcoming race."

Hearing this, Qin Miao felt much more at ease. As for Perez using the virtual safety car to pit for new tires? Qin Miao didn't even consider it.

Although pitting during a virtual safety car can offer some advantages, they're not as significant as during a full safety car.

Moreover, there are only 18 laps left until the race ends, and unlike Qin Miao, Perez no longer has fresh medium tires.

While Perez is known as a tire conservation master, his skills aren't as extreme as Qin Miao's. Plus, even if he changed to a set of soft tires now, he wouldn't have the capacity to chase and attack Qin Miao after these 18 laps.

Changing to mediums is even more unlikely, as there are still seven cars behind Qin Miao. If Perez pits now, he'll fall behind Zhou Guanyu.

Do you think Zhou Guanyu would help Qin Miao defend against Perez, even just a little?

So, Qin Miao was now quite comfortably settled, just waiting for Alonso to pit and change tires before accelerating to defend against Perez behind him.

In the middle of lap 40, the virtual safety car period ended, and after Alonso pitted for new tires, his "Soul Fusion Technique" with Qin Miao was finished.

Qin Miao moved up to second, with Perez in his DRS zone.

But Qin Miao wasn't panicked at all. He activated the ERS, quickly leaving Perez outside the DRS zone.

Then the audience saw Perez start accelerating to catch up to Qin Miao.

With the train leader and driver gone, Hamilton and the rest in this DRS train were relieved.

Interestingly, after being released, Hamilton began to fall behind Perez as well.

In the following laps, Qin Miao used his medium tire advantage to gradually distance himself from Perez in the corners, while Perez closed the gap on the straights.

Qin Miao's position control against Perez was extremely precise, often allowing Perez's front wheels to catch up to his rear wheels at braking points, before squeezing Perez's exit line with his right of way.

This often disrupted Perez's rhythm out of the corners, allowing Qin Miao to always pull away with at least a 0.6-second gap after corners.

For the rest of the race, Qin Miao basically did nothing else, applying every defensive method and theory in his head on Perez.

Perez was left utterly bewildered by his defense.

The audience was thrilled, with cheers and applause erupting every time Qin Miao successfully defended Perez's attack.

The commentators at Five-Star Sports were equally excited, their faces alight with excitement throughout.

Of course, the happiest were probably the F1 officials and the sponsors of the Mercedes and Red Bull teams.

Because in the last ten or so laps, 85% of the broadcast focused on Qin Miao and Perez.

Perez's tires were constantly under high temperature due to his attacks on Qin Miao, causing significant tire wear. With just 3 laps to go, Perez's tires finally couldn't hold up anymore.

Perez had no choice but to reluctantly end his attack on Qin Miao.

After Perez voluntarily slowed down, his team radio communication was released to the public: "How on earth is he doing it? Medium tires shouldn't last this long!"

Perez's race engineer could only helplessly respond: "Perhaps that's why he could win the driver's championship in his debut season."

Ultimately, Qin Miao crossed the finish line in second, 25 seconds slower than Leclerc and 2 seconds faster than Perez.

Frankie and the team members were ecstatic, appearing beside the pit wall, loudly cheering and celebrating Qin Miao's finish.

Qin Miao was also very excited at this moment, raising his right hand high and making a victory sign.

"Despite the many challenges Mercedes faced this season, we saw that Qin Miao's strength is still formidable. His mentality wasn't affected by the team's poor performance this season. His 15-lap lockdown of Perez is the best evidence." Seeing Qin Miao cross the finish line in second, Bing and others at Five-Star Sports genuinely felt happy and proud for Qin Miao.

This is a kid from our country!

"Well done, Qin Miao! That was beautifully done!" Frankie was quick to extend his congratulations.

The applause was thunderous inside the Mercedes team garage.

"Hahaha, am I awesome or what?" Qin Miao was especially happy.

"Awesome, awesome!" Frankie replied in fluent Chinese to Qin Miao's question.

...

Even though it seemed easy for Qin Miao to keep Perez locked down for those ten or so laps, he was under quite a lot of pressure.

On one hand, he relied on the tire reserves from the early DRS train; on the other hand, Perez's car was long exposed to the hot exhaust from Qin Miao's car, reducing the engine power. Finally, most importantly, it was Qin Miao's precise control over Perez's position and a bit of luck.

These advantages accumulated over time, ultimately allowing Qin Miao to fiercely fend off Perez's attacks for 15 laps.

When doing the victory lap, Qin Miao sped up to drive alongside Leclerc.

The two friends, one in a Ferrari, the other in a Mercedes, paraded proudly after the race.

It's worth mentioning that when Qin Miao got close to Leclerc, Leclerc gave him a thumbs-up.

Although Qin Miao nicknamed himself Le the Fourth, Leclerc still admired Qin Miao's racing talent, especially his defensive skill, which made Leclerc feel inferior.

Most F1 drivers defend in standard ways, meeting force with force, but Qin Miao is different. His defense is characterized by cunning strategy.

Qin Miao might have planned the next corner's defense back in the previous timing sector.

This long-term defensive strategy always left Leclerc amazed when watching replays of Qin Miao's defensive videos.

Leclerc often wondered, how could Qin Miao manage to remain fully focused on racing while also calculating how to defend at the next corner, all the while maintaining his speed and position on the track?

This question lingered in Leclerc's mind for a long time, and he even asked Qin Miao why.

Qin Miao's explanation was vague: instinct, as if he was born to do it.

Meanwhile, another Chinese driver, Zhou Guanyu, scored again by finishing ninth on the track.

In the first three races of the season, Zhou Guanyu proved his ability to the Alfa Romeo team. If it weren't for team problems, he would have scored in the last race as well.

Judging by the current performance, Zhou Guanyu's position as a driver is pretty secure.

Qin Miao and Leclerc arrived in front of the podium area in the pit lane.

After getting out of the car, Qin Miao also saw Perez stepping out of his car.

The Mexican came over proactively to shake hands and hug Qin Miao: "I can't deny it, your defense in this race was crazy. Congratulations."

Appreciating Perez's sportsmanship, Qin Miao smiled and said, "Actually, the pressure was pretty high for me throughout this process."

As he spoke, Qin Miao took off his helmet and sweaty fireproof head sock, showing it to Perez: "See, the head sock is soaked."