How Did I Become an F1 Driver?
Chapter 1034 - 398: The Motivated Zhou Guanyu
The drivers eliminated in Q1 are: Norris, Gasly, Vettel, Stroll, Tsunoda.
However, once the race reached Q2, the conditions on the track started to become frequent.
Firstly, Leclerc's car had a mechanical failure after completing Q1 and returning to the team's garage, resulting in him not being able to come out of the pits to run a valid flying lap for the entire Q2.
Having just won the street race in Azerbaijan in the previous race, Perez seemed somewhat unaccustomed to the traditional circuit layout, locking the right front wheel directly at T3 during the flying lap.
The critical point was that this corner was a heavy braking point, causing Perez to miss the braking zone after locking the tire.
Although Perez immediately released the brake in an attempt to regain grip for the car to steer into the corner, it was already too late.
The experienced Perez realized that crashing in this situation was inevitable.
If he forced the car into the corner at this point, it could easily crash sideways into the track's barrier.
Therefore, to prevent this from happening, Perez could only lightly tap the brakes, trying to reduce the car's speed as much as possible, before charging straight into the grass and crashing into the barrier.
This crashing method is the least damaging for the team.
After all, crashing like this only damages the car's front wing, but crashing sideways means potentially needing to replace not just the front wing, but also the rear wing, side pods, underbody, and possibly both suspensions.
Sometimes you can't help but marvel at the reaction speed of F1 drivers.
However, the spot where Perez crashed was particularly dangerous, just before the braking point at T3.
Moreover, it was still raining, and Perez's car got stuck in the barrier, requiring a crane to lift it out.
With all factors complete, the race officials decisively issued a red flag.
Despite the red flag staying for over 20 minutes, there was not much joy visible on the faces of the Ferrari personnel, as the brief 20 minutes was not enough time to fix the engine of Leclerc's car.
Therefore, up until the end of Q2, Leclerc was unable to leave the team's garage. πππππ¬πππ·ππΏππ‘.ππΈπ
Of course, Leclerc wasn't the only unlucky one. Although he didn't use the same engine as Ferrari, Norris also encountered a mechanical failure, spending all of Q2 in the team's garage.
The drivers eliminated in Q2 are: Bottas, Albon, Russell, Perez, Norris, Leclerc.
It's worth mentioning that perhaps it was Monday's conversation that motivated Zhou Guanyu, or maybe it was wanting to showcase himself more in front of Geely. Today, Zhou Guanyu's performance was impressive, breaking into Q2 for the first time in his career.
As for Perez, Norris, and Leclerc, none of them managed to set a valid lap time on the track.
It can only be said that Zhou Guanyu had a stroke of luck in this qualifying session.
Moreover, Zhou Guanyu also defeated his teammate Bottas in a qualifying session for the first time.
However, upon seeing Zhou Guanyu's results, Qin Miao wasn't very pleased; rains have always been an issue for Qin Miao.
The rain had dampened his spirits considerably.
The team had informed Qin Miao early on that the rain would persist throughout the qualifying stages. At this point, Qin Miao had already resigned to it, hoping it wouldn't rain during the race tomorrow.