How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 602 - 260: Dutch Grand Prix Race (Part 2)

Afterwards, Qin Miao didn't have much work to do, so they returned to the hotel to sleep and see how online audiences were evaluating Qin Miao's performance on the track.

It's worth mentioning that Qin Miao has really spoiled the taste of domestic car fans. Now that they have finally got third place in qualifying, domestic fans are still not very satisfied.

[Why only third?]

[The gap in qualifying with Hamilton is just 0.15 seconds. If they took a corner a bit better, it might have been second.]

[Too busy playing Genshin Impact]

[Didn't Toto confiscate Qin Miao's phone?]

[Doesn't Qin Miao still have a Switch?]

[Seems like that was confiscated by Toto too]

[So pitiful]

[This reminds me of my phone being confiscated by a teacher while I was in school]

[Why is the conversation off track again? Aren't we supposed to be discussing Qin Miao's poor qualifying performance?]

[Don't be so harsh on Qin Miao. It's just their first year, and driving the same car as Hamilton without falling too far behind is already impressive.]

[Exactly, your expectations have been spoiled by Qin Miao. Why didn't you say these things when there weren't any Chinese drivers before?]

...

After laughing for a while, Qin Miao put away their phone and went to sleep.

The next day, Qin Miao got up early and, upon arriving at the paddock, noticed that there were even more spectators on site, none of whom were wearing masks, as if COVID-19 didn't exist, even though Kimi was absent due to testing positive for COVID-19.

You have to hand it to these foreigners; they always seem to run full tilt down the road of self-destruction.

It's worth mentioning that a total of 360,000 spectators attended this week's Grand Prix, and at least half of them were wearing orange vests.

Let's not dwell too much on the pre-race preparations; Mercedes arranged different strategies for their two drivers this week.

Hamilton was set for a red-yellow-yellow two-stop strategy, while Qin Miao had a different strategy; the team planned to have them on a yellow-red one-stop strategy.

According to the team's simulations, this strategy wouldn't affect Qin Miao's overall lap speed and could help block Verstappen for Hamilton.

If Qin Miao's race pace over the distance is really fast enough, with their overtaking ability, they could potentially compete for the podium and even the win in this race.

Despite the team officially determining the roles and positions of the two drivers—Hamilton as the number one driver, Qin Miao as the number two—

Mercedes still left Qin Miao the possibility to challenge Hamilton.

So before the race begins during the pre-race preparation phase, almost everyone was analyzing what the different tire choices of the two Mercedes drivers, Hamilton and Qin Miao, would mean for the race and what kind of trouble they might cause for Verstappen.

During the pre-race car parade segment, the host bluntly asked Qin Miao in front of the audience: "Does Mercedes have any special strategies targeting Red Bull for this race?"

Faced with such questions, Qin Miao could only start dodging.

And just like all the other drivers, once Qin Miao completed the pre-race ceremony of listening to the Dutch national anthem and returned to their car waiting for the race to start, everything would gradually become clear.

10 minutes later, all the teams' staff withdrew from the track, and as the Rolex clock above reached the specified time, all drivers immediately drove out of their parking spots, starting the warm-up lap for the Dutch Grand Prix.

As the warm-up lap began, orange smoke rose from the spectator stands, supporting Verstappen.

But to be fair, during the main race, the smoke from the spectators is beneficial to the drivers because they can determine the wind direction and strength on the track based on the direction the smoke from the audience's hands is blowing.

It's worth mentioning that Perez, due to a poor starting position, simply replaced a new set of engine components and started from the pit lane on the white tires.

Sharing the same fate as Perez, but even more unfortunate, was Latifi. After crashing in qualifying, with the help of the team's staff, he managed to repair his car, but in the main race, he could only start from the pit bay.

Soon, the warm-up lap ended, and all 18 cars parked in their starting grids, the medical car positioned at the back. As the green flag waved, the five red lights began to light up one by one.

...

"The five red lights go out, and the race begins!" Fei's excited voice reached the ears of all the domestic fans watching the race.

"Verstappen had a great start, widening the gap with Hamilton right from the beginning, and what about Qin Miao?"

"Qin Miao's speed is impressive; they are already side by side with Hamilton! It's hard to believe that Qin Miao, starting on yellow tires, is quicker off the line than both Hamilton and Verstappen, who started on red tires."

Even though Qin Miao's start was very quick, even faster than Verstappen and Hamilton, they were blocked by Verstappen in front and Hamilton to the right.

To the right is also grass, so moving right would risk losing control. Therefore, until they entered T1, Qin Miao couldn't improve their position and could only block behind Verstappen, going wheel to wheel with Hamilton into T1.

Verstappen took a defensive line entering T1, blocking just in front of Hamilton, while Qin Miao found an open normal entry line for the corner.

However, because the start speed was faster than Verstappen's and they were blocked, Qin Miao lifted the pedal slightly to avoid a collision due to that accelerating moment. Although Verstappen gave them an attacking lane, Qin Miao couldn't capitalize on it.

But through the hairpin of T1, Qin Miao took a wide crossover line, and Gasly behind couldn't match Mercedes's speed into the corner, creating a gap for Qin Miao and even blocking both Ferraris behind.

This smaller Red Bull team certainly looked suspiciously like they were in cahoots.

Of course, although Qin Miao had a speed advantage exiting the corner against Hamilton, a tight left-hand turn right after T1 meant Qin completely lost the chance to overtake Hamilton at the start.

"Ah, what a pity, Qin Miao had a beautiful start but was jointly blocked by Verstappen and Hamilton, forcing them to slow down."

"If Qin Miao's qualifying speed had been a bit quicker, starting from second, with that excellent start, Qin Miao definitely could have taken first," Zhou Haoran also regretted, "Once in first, given Qin Miao's long-distance speed, tire conservation, and defensive ability, they likely could have brought home another win for Mercedes on the Zandvoort track in the Netherlands."

"Yes, truly a pity. But the race has only just begun, and Qin Miao is still on yellow tires. I believe the team has arranged a different strategy for them. Let's continue to look forward to Qin Miao's performance in this race," Bing concluded.

...

After T3, the positions of the top four drivers were already determined; however, the Ferraris and Alpine team members were still battling for starting positions and were sandwiched by Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi.

But the Alfa Romeo car was still somewhat lacking. A few corners later, the two Alpines that were behind him overtook him, and Giovinazzi, overwhelmed by too many cars passing him at one time, lost tempo as he couldn't find a suitable driving line.

He even collided with Alonso, but fortunately, neither car sustained damage, although this collision disrupted Giovinazzi's rhythm, allowing Ricardo to pick up a position behind him.

Giovinazzi's start was truly miserable. Starting seventh, he lost three positions before completing a lap, falling to tenth.