Chapter 1046: Chapter 402: Johnny Silverhand at Silverstone

Of course, Qin Miao is the youngest world champion in history, and even if it rains, his skill level is still higher than most F1 drivers in the paddock.

It’s just that compared to his terrifying innate talent, it seems a bit weaker.

Fortunately, the rain during today’s qualifying isn’t too heavy, so all the drivers are using intermediate tires.

Qin Miao still came out of the pit lane ahead of Hamilton.

In the first flying lap, Qin Miao drove conservatively and didn’t clock in a very fast lap time.

However, the Mercedes team, hoping for a good result, understands that Qin Miao drives more conservatively in the rain, so they were understanding when Qin Miao merely clocked in a valid lap time on his first flying lap.

Unlike Qin Miao, who ran a 1:43.219 in his first flying lap, Hamilton immediately clocked a 1:42.627.

However, for the drivers, the first flying lap in Q1 is usually a safety lap, much like practice times without any reference value.

Because the intermediate tires are quite durable, drivers don’t head back to the pit for rest immediately after the first flying lap. Instead, they do a cool-down lap on the track, then a flying lap, followed by another cool-down, and then another flying lap, repeating the cycle until the tire durability is completely exhausted.

But after Qin Miao’s second lap, everyone was stunned.

1:40.159.

Normally, after getting a good time, Qin Miao wouldn’t bother with the remaining laps of Q1.

But racing in the rain is different from normal conditions. As drivers keep driving, the track conditions improve.

So the strategy in a wet qualifying is to stay on track and keep pushing for personal best lap times as long as the tires have enough grip.

By the time Q1 ended, Hamilton and Qin Miao were positioned second and third, advancing to the next round.

The drivers eliminated in Q1 were: Russell, Magelsen, Vettel, Mick, Stroll.

After a short break, the race proceeded to Q2.

Qin Miao and Hamilton maintained the same strategy, staying on track for extended periods to clock in lap times.

Both advanced rather comfortably to Q3.

Eliminated in Q2 were: Gasly, Bottas, Tsunoda, Ricardo, O’Kang.

That’s right, Zhou Guanyu once again outperformed his teammate Bottas in qualifying.

To be fair, in the past two years, Mercedes drivers haven’t been very competitive in the rain.

Bottas is one, and the same goes for Qin Miao.

Q3.

By this time, the rain on the track had stopped, but there was still some standing water, although some elevated areas were already clear of water.

Qin Miao was still doing regular flying laps at the start of Q3.

Qin Miao’s first flying lap clocked in at 1:42.111.

At this point, some might wonder.

Wasn’t it not raining in Q3? Why then was Qin Miao’s speed not faster than during the rainy Q1?

This involves a misconception about car grip.

When it rains, the track is completely wet, meaning that while drivers are cautious about accelerating out of corners and braking too early or too late due to the rain,

the predictability of how the car will behave remains consistent.

No matter which corner you’re in, the car’s grip is the same, and drivers know how to handle it.

However, during the period after the rain just stopped, some parts of the track are dry while others remain wet.

This results in unpredictable grip for the drivers.

Sometimes when exiting a corner, you might hit a section that’s dry on one side and wet on the other. On the dry section, you can accelerate fully out of a corner, but after about 5 meters, you encounter a small puddle.

If you hit it at full throttle, the rear wheels will undoubtedly skid.

For instance, if the track before the braking point of a corner is dry, you can brake effectively, but once in the corner’s apex, if it’s wet, at that speed, you’ll definitely spin.

So this unpredictability under such track conditions prevents drivers from achieving faster lap times.

And Qin Miao just happens to be the least comfortable in these track conditions.

So compared to Leclerc, Hamilton, and Verstappen, Qin Miao’s first flying lap in Q3 wasn’t impressive.

Throughout the subsequent race process, Qin Miao’s speed wasn’t very fast. In the end, when Q3 concluded, Qin Miao only secured sixth place.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was in fifth.

However, despite Qin Miao and Hamilton’s qualifying positions being similar to Mercedes’ recent races, making it seem as if the upgrades Mercedes brought to this race had no effect,

in actuality, the time gap between Hamilton and the driver ahead of him, Perez, was only 0.09 seconds.

Qin Miao’s full potential wasn’t displayed due to the rain at Silverstone.

Given Qin Miao’s performance this season, he would have certainly been able to surpass Perez in this qualifying, and even challenge Leclerc for third.

But alas, the weather didn’t favor them.

Qin Miao could only start from sixth place with resignation.

Nevertheless, experienced fans and industry professionals could easily see the effect of Mercedes’ upgrades in this race. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

At least in terms of single-lap speed, Mercedes’ gap with Red Bull and Ferrari has become very small.