How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 612 - 265: Verstappen Learns from Qin Miao

Qin Miao's attack was simple and unadorned, even a bit brutal.

At T11, after taking a cross line on the outside and entering T12, with Verstappen holding the inside line of T12, Qin Miao arrived later but surpassed from the outside with a stronger mechanical grip, overtaking Verstappen forcefully from the outside.

Verstappen initially wanted to squeeze Qin Miao again using his line rights when Qin Miao exited the corner, but then remembered that Qin Miao was also quite headstrong.

Unlike other drivers, when Verstappen offers the choice of a collision to other drivers, they often choose to back down.

After all, finishing the race is more important, and vehicle damage is generally not something teams want to bear.

But Qin Miao is different, whether through the portrayal of Qin Miao's personality or his performance in the recent race.

Verstappen knew that if he handed this choice to Qin Miao, Qin Miao would definitely choose the option of direct confrontation without hesitation.

So, when exiting the corner, Verstappen didn't squeeze Qin Miao too hard and left him some space to exit the corner.

But because of Verstappen's hesitation, Qin Miao, with a faster exit speed, overtook Verstappen on the outside after the corner and returned to first place.

"Nice! That was a beautiful overtake by Qin Miao!" Seeing Qin Miao finally complete the overtake on Verstappen, Fei and others couldn't help but applaud in celebration.

In the subsequent corners T12 and T14, Qin Miao quickly began to widen the time gap with Verstappen.

At the end of the third timing sector, there were still 7 laps left until the end of the race.

And Qin Miao needed to gain a 5-second advantage within these 7 laps.

Naturally, carrying a five-second penalty, Qin Miao began pushing rapidly without regard for tire wear.

At the end of the third timing sector in lap 65, Qin Miao once again set his fastest lap time.

In the third timing sector of lap 66, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him came to 1.5 seconds.

You could say Qin Miao was really racing as if his life depended on it.

Meanwhile, behind Verstappen, Hamilton also started getting restless.

Due to the damage to Verstappen's car, even Gasly behind him was faster than Verstappen.

It's just that because of Hamilton's blockade, Gasly couldn't accelerate for the moment.

In lap 67, with Hamilton holding off behind, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen expanded to 4.8 seconds.

The reason Qin Miao could run so far was partly due to the damage to Verstappen's car, which was already not fast, and combined with Hamilton's attack from behind, Verstappen had to take defensive lines every time, naturally slowing him down.

It's worth mentioning that, with the damage, Verstappen was surprisingly able to withstand wave after wave of Hamilton's attacks amid the cheers of his home crowd.

And it's noteworthy that Verstappen used Qin Miao's defensive tactics to fend off Hamilton's attacks.

Deliberately exposing a flaw to Hamilton, who had never seen Verstappen use this defensive tactic before, coupled with the car damage, Hamilton instinctively thought it was an error from Verstappen's inability to control due to mechanical issues.

Because of this, Hamilton fell for Verstappen's traps several times.

Moreover, Verstappen had no psychological burden using his signature defensive moves against Hamilton.

Unlike the headstrong Qin Miao, Hamilton wasn't someone without honors like Qin Miao.

When Verstappen compressed Hamilton's exit line, Hamilton would obediently slow down.

The proverb "a barefoot person isn't afraid of someone wearing shoes" didn't apply to Hamilton.

Verstappen knew Hamilton too well.

However, Verstappen's tactic only worked when the FIA hadn't opened the DRS.

Because once the DRS was opened, the stalemate between Verstappen and Hamilton immediately turned around.