How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 604 - 262: Horner’s Headache 2

Toto sat with arms crossed, leaning back in his chair with a very relaxed expression, leisurely awaiting the changes on the track.

Lap 35, Verstappen finally caught up to the DRS zone behind Qin Miao.

At this moment, the time gap between Verstappen and Hamilton was still 4 seconds.

Although the team hadn't told Verstappen how much time he had to attack, Verstappen knew that if he couldn't overtake Qin Miao shortly, he would be called in by the team to change tires.

"Let's take a look, Verstappen has finally caught up behind Qin Miao," Fei commented upon seeing this: "Qin Miao's performance in this race is extremely crucial. Whether Qin Miao can bring back a championship from Verstappen's home ground all depends on how many laps Qin Miao can actually defend against Verstappen this time."

Naturally, Qin Miao had noticed Verstappen behind him.

However, upon realizing Verstappen was behind him, Qin Miao's speed actually slowed down.

Especially after the first timing sector passed through turn T1, Verstappen was somewhat surprised to find himself unknowingly glued to 0.1 seconds behind Qin Miao.

Realizing this unusual change, Verstappen immediately became alert.

Although he didn't know the saying "when things are strange, there's a reason," he knew that with Qin Miao's terrifying defensive ability, just closing this small gap wouldn't cause Qin Miao to make such a basic error.

Upon seeing the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen, the on-site audience suddenly erupted with a huge cheer.

But Verstappen quickly realized, Qin Miao was just being annoying; even though he was very close at this point, the following corners of the first timing sector were numerous, and just like Hamilton at Hengelo then, there wasn't any space for overtaking. No matter how good the tires were, it would be the same.

So after running through corners T1-T6 of the first timing sector, Qin Miao maintained a very slow pace, but anytime Verstappen dared to pop out on the outside line, Qin Miao slightly squeezed Verstappen's line, forcing Verstappen to ease off the throttle.

What? Not easing off the throttle, just go for it!

Then Verstappen would be heading off the track because Qin Miao's squeeze directly blocked Verstappen's best exit line.

And in these corners of the first timing sector, the more than 4-second gap between Verstappen and Hamilton directly shrank to 3.6 seconds.

In just one timing sector, Qin Miao blocked nearly a second from Verstappen.

During the first timing sector, Verstappen also tried taking a crossover line in T3 and then pop out on the outside in T5 to attempt an overtake. But Qin Miao didn't make any aggressive defensive moves, just slightly squeezed his exit line, so to avoid going off the track, Verstappen had to ease off the throttle.

At that moment, Verstappen, everyone on the Red Bull team, and all the Verstappen fans at the Zandvoort track felt a tingling in their scalp.

Because at that moment, they saw a shadow of Alonso at the Hengelo circuit in Qin Miao, and the pressure he gave Verstappen was even greater than what Alonso gave Hamilton back then.

This was different from the Bahrain's defense against Verstappen at the start of the season. The overtaking difficulty in Bahrain is much lower than Zandvoort, but on such a track, Qin Miao managed to defend against Verstappen for over 10 laps.

So what if the venue shifts to the Zandvoort track, where defending the rear is easier? And the one facing Verstappen now isn't the rookie Qin Miao who just entered F1 but the genius driver Qin Miao who won 4 race championships in his first season.

The difficulty of overtaking can be easily imagined.

At this moment, however, Horner had no spare thoughts to focus on the duel between Verstappen and Qin Miao, as he discovered a big problem: ever since Qin Miao started to grapple with Verstappen, Hamilton rapidly reduced the time gap with Verstappen.

Some people might not see this as a big deal, but if you look at it in the long run, if Qin Miao holds off Verstappen for another three to four laps, it may not just be Hamilton reducing the gap with Verstappen from behind; Gasly from Toro Rosso and the two Ferrari drivers would also close the gap with Verstappen.

If Verstappen then decides to pit for tire changes, he would definitely end up behind the two Ferrari drivers after coming out.

Despite Ferrari's giving up on this season, with minimal upgrades mid-season and not being a direct competitor to Red Bull, they wouldn't let Verstappen pass easily, whether it was Leclerc or Sainz, if there's a Red Bull car behind.

After realizing this, Horner directly instructed Red Bull's strategy team to start calculating when Verstappen should pit to avoid getting stuck behind the Ferraris according to the current trend.

What? The fourth place is Gasly from Toro Rosso, won't he also block Verstappen?

Didn't you just say, the fourth place is Toro Rosso.

What team is Verstappen driving for? Red Bull!

No matter how fast the second team is, it is still the second team; if Gasly doesn't want pressure from Marco, he must let Verstappen pass if he appears behind him.

If Ferrari finds Verstappen behind them, blocking is just for fun, to pass some time, just blocking Verstappen for fun.

But the speeds of the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars are not in the same league, and moreover, they are first and second teams under the same team; blocking Verstappen would be a thankless task for Gasly.

So, whether in reason or sentiment, letting Verstappen pass is the best choice for Gasly, and if the timing is right, Gasly could even take advantage of Verstappen's DRS when he leaves.

On the track, after the first timing sector, they entered the second timing sector.

The entire second timing sector had no suitable overtaking points. Even so, Qin Miao still sold quite a few feints to Verstappen.

Such as intentionally braking early during corner entry, causing a very slow entry speed and creating a large space on the outside for Verstappen to exploit.

Delaying acceleration at corner exit, making the speed noticeably slow, giving Verstappen a chance to pop out on the outside in the next corner.

Despite seeing this, Verstappen didn't attempt to attack Qin Miao even though he found his entry and exit speeds were much faster than Qin Miao's.

Because the flaws Qin Miao showed were too conspicuous.

Braked early on entry? But Qin Miao didn't give up his inside line.

Delayed acceleration at exit? But the next corner quickly followed, and delaying acceleration after the exit didn't cause oversteering; instead, his tires remained intact and he even protected them to some extent by accelerating later after the exit.

So despite all these apparent flaws on Qin Miao's car in front of Verstappen, Verstappen didn't dare to overtake Qin Miao's car.

Because after so many races, he figured out that anytime Qin Miao gave him a feint, there was a setup lying in wait behind it. If he fell for it, Qin Miao would immediately open up a gap, likely missing the best overtaking opportunity later.

So Verstappen chose to bide his time, watching his ERS energy getting to 60%, feeling secretly proud.

Just you wait, I won't overtake you now, but in the DRS zone, you'll witness the power of the Honda engine!

Only, Verstappen didn't expect to be played by Qin Miao again.

In T10 of the second timing sector, at the entry, Qin Miao didn't take the normal exit line, instead opting for a wider exit line.

Everyone knew that taking such a line would naturally give Qin Miao more speed after the corner, with a longer straight to accelerate the car.

But there had always been someone behind Qin Miao, and after taking this line, an opportunity appeared for Verstappen to insert into Qin Miao's inside line.

Furthermore, Qin Miao passed before the DRS detection point preceding T10 ahead of Verstappen.

So no matter how Qin Miao entered or exited T10, Verstappen would have DRS after T10 in the DRS zone.