How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 629 - 271: The Monza Grand Prix Begins

After the official start, Verstappen's start wasn't very good, while on the other side, Qin Miao's start was as fast and good as always.

After the start, before reaching the pit exit, Qin Miao had already overtaken Verstappen by half a car length.

Verstappen saw this and was anxious, but there was nothing he could do. After all, he didn't start well, and could only watch helplessly as Qin Miao overtook him on the inside line.

Before entering the braking point at T1, Qin Miao had completely overtaken Verstappen, not to mention that Qin Miao was on the inside line during the start phase, giving him an absolute advantage when entering T1.

As a result, Qin Miao avoided the most dangerous time on the Monza circuit at the start phase.

But the bad news for Verstappen didn't stop there. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Because besides Qin Miao, Verstappen's former teammate Ricardo also had a faster start than him.

Moreover, since Ricardo's teammate Norris didn't start as quickly as Verstappen, Ricardo directly forced his way ahead of Norris on the outside line during this process. Then relying on his faster start, he engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Verstappen at the T1 phase.

However, since he started third, Ricardo had to also consider Qin Miao ahead of him when braking at T1 and couldn't brake late forcibly, otherwise he'd crash into Qin Miao.

Thus, Ricardo went wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen in the T1 phase, but Verstappen reclaimed his position at T2.

Meanwhile, Hamilton wasn't as weak as he had been in the Saturday sprint qualifying stage. Today, Hamilton's start was remarkable; before reaching the braking point, he was on the outside line of Norris and went into the corner simultaneously with Norris on the outside line.

After the corner, relying on T2 being a left turn, Hamilton withstood the pressure from Norris and gained another position, moving between the two McLarens.

There were no changes in driver positions in this corner afterward.

Because of Monza's track characteristics, the overtaking operation in T1 and T2 can only be accomplished if the front drivers have relatively loose positions.

The drivers behind were basically bunched up tightly, with no space to overtake, they had to go with the flow into the corners obediently.

Afterward, the traffic passed through the faux corner T3 and accelerated all the way to T4.

At this position, Hamilton prepared to overtake Ricardo ahead of him on the outside line, but Ricardo didn't want to let him, and since Ricardo had the line rights, he didn't have to give way.

Then, Ricardo directly pushed Hamilton off the track, and when Hamilton returned to the track, he was back behind Norris.

That start attempt by Hamilton was considered wasted.

No more surprises occurred on the track after that, and everyone began running the race at their own pace.

Qin Miao once again began leading the race, although Verstappen behind was constantly pressuring Qin Miao, practically preparing to overtake at T1 and T4 every lap.

But this was somewhat intentional by Qin Miao. After all, if he didn't give Verstappen any hope of overtaking, he wouldn't waste his tires on overtaking attempts.

Qin Miao simply defended the inside line, braked late, and fought for the corner with Verstappen.

Along with Qin Miao's headstrong behavior in this race, the small black room incident where the two were confined before this race, and the reminders from the FIA race officials at the driver's meeting before the race.

Verstappen and Qin Miao were relatively restrained when it came to car battles, generally avoiding situations where their cars got too close when entering corners.

For a while, Qin Miao locked down Verstappen again.

And because Qin Miao and Verstappen were always battling in front, neither of them had a flying lap pace, so the gap between the drivers behind wasn't widened for a short period.

ps. It's the last day of the month, dear readers, give some monthly tickets, please.