How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 630 - 272: Verstappen’s Sudden Good Fortune

However, because everyone hadn't been pulled apart too much, Hamilton finally found an opportunity to make a move on Norris during the 4th lap.

But it's important to know that overtaking at Monza is quite difficult, given that it's a high-speed circuit with many bends, and following closely this season has been very challenging.

So although Hamilton officially started to take action against Norris, both of them, like Verstappen and Qin Miao ahead, could only try late braking at T1 and T2 corners to see if they could overtake.

And starting from this lap, Verstappen also stopped attacking Qin Miao and just stayed behind in the DRS zone to put pressure on Qin Miao while seeking help from his team.

However, despite this, Qin Miao wasn't the least bit flustered, because Monza's DRS efficiency is the lowest among all the circuits this season.

After all, everyone uses very flat wings, and even when the DRS is open, the drag reduction effect is weak.

"I can't get close to him," Verstappen said to his team via TR.

"Qin Miao is deliberately protecting his tires, we'll have to wait for the pit stop."

...

Lap 9.

Verstappen, who was barely keeping up in the DRS zone behind Qin Miao, also slowed down after hearing a reminder from his team.

This calculation is easy.

If he keeps following behind Qin Miao, the speed advantage provided by DRS to Verstappen is not enough to compensate for the speed loss caused by the turbulent air from Qin Miao's car.

If it were yesterday's short sprint race, Verstappen would definitely stick close to Qin Miao, constantly putting pressure on him.

Hoping that under constant pressure, Qin Miao would make a mistake.

But today is a 300-kilometer race.

Plus, Qin Miao is known for his defense and tire conservation, making Verstappen's method somewhat a display of ineptitude against Qin Miao.

So the only choice for Verstappen at this moment is to play the tire-changing pit stop game with Qin Miao.

Trying to see from the team's side if they can overtake Qin Miao.

And after Qin Miao noticed that Verstappen behind him was no longer putting pressure on him, he also stopped suppressing his own speed and began to run longer distances using tire conservation.

Consequently, by lap 12, the gap between the drivers behind began to widen.

The time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen remained around 2.5 seconds.

Meanwhile, the third-place Ricardo had already been left 4 seconds behind by Verstappen.

And at the same time, Hamilton made his move on Norris ahead.

However, due to the difference in their tires, all Hamilton could do was get close to Norris in the DRS zone, but before reaching the braking point, Hamilton seemed to lack a bit of top speed, making it impossible to pull ahead.

Lap 15, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen reached 4 seconds.

It's not that Verstappen didn't want to stay in the position that was always threatening to Qin Miao, it's mainly because Verstappen's soft tires started to degrade.

Qin Miao's soft tires, however, still had speed, and lap times remained very consistent, fluctuating around 0.2 seconds.

Lap 19, Leclerc, who had been chased by Perez from behind, was the first to sound the horn for a pit stop.

Ferrari might be like a circus, but even circus shows can't be arranged too densely; seeing too much would cause audience fatigue, especially at Ferrari's home track.

Having Sainz penalized in qualifying due to traffic issues was already absurd enough, causing issues in the tire-changing phase for the spectators at Tiefu Temple would be unnecessarily cruel.

After the pit stop, Leclerc switched to medium tires.

Time was 2.6 seconds, which was considered a relatively qualified result for Ferrari.

Meanwhile, ahead, although Red Bull didn't tell Verstappen, when Verstappen passed by Red Bull's team command post, he saw the sign extended by the team.

At this moment, Verstappen had already made his calculations.

Despite Qin Miao's extraordinary tire conservation ability, according to Red Bull's calculations, Qin Miao's soft tires now weren't faster than brand new medium tires.

Red Bull also realized that even though Verstappen was faster than Qin Miao, overtaking Qin Miao on Monza's track was extremely challenging.

So on lap 21, having been pulled apart to 4.6 seconds, Verstappen used the last bit of grip left on his soft tires, preparing to get closer to Qin Miao in the final stages to prepare for an undercut against Qin Miao.

Lap 22, Verstappen pitted.

Verstappen switched to brand new medium tires.

And Red Bull team didn't falter, showcasing an absolute textbook-level tire change, with a time of: 2.09 seconds.

After Red Bull's pit stop, Qin Miao heard Frankie's voice in his TR: "Qin Miao, Verstappen has pitted, start accelerating now, we'll pit this lap as well."

Mercedes' approach was very straightforward, considering Qin Miao had already created a 4-second time advantage earlier, they had ample room for error and didn't need to worry about Red Bull's undercut strategy against Qin Miao.

Since Verstappen pitted, Qin Miao just needed to follow along with Red Bull's strategy and pit. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Even if the pit stop was slightly slower, it wouldn't be an issue.

So on lap 23, Qin Miao entered the pit lane.