How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 631 - 272: Verstappen’s Overwhelming Fortune (6K, Extra Update 14/16)_2
The director switched to the Mercedes pit crew at this point, clearly showing the yellow medium tires in their hands.
The Red Bull team, upon seeing Qin Miao pit and Mercedes's tire choice for him, felt their teeth almost cracking with frustration.
How ruthless can they be? Are they not giving any chance at all?
Then, an unbelievable scene left all Red Bull staff ecstatic while Mercedes fans were in disbelief.
After Qin Miao parked his car in the pit stop position, his car was promptly lifted, and everyone deftly removed the tires from the car.
However, the right front wheel tire changer for Qin Miao's car was an exception; he did not immediately remove the right front wheel.
The reason was that there was a problem with the bolt gun of the left front wheel, and he initially failed to remove the bolt from the left front wheel of Qin Miao's car.
It was not until he changed to another bolt gun that he was able to remove the bolt from Qin Miao's car.
Once the bolt was removed, the tire was taken off, followed by the new medium tire being fitted, and Qin Miao's car was lowered.
After landing, Qin Miao hurriedly drove out of the pit, attempting to regain some of the lost time.
But the 8.1 seconds displayed in the bottom right corner of the broadcast screen deeply stung all Mercedes and Qin Miao fans.
After Qin Miao's car drove away, the left front wheel bolt gun handler picked up the broken bolt gun again, puzzled, and began to inspect it.
Honestly, when Qin Miao realized his left front tire hadn't been removed immediately, his mind was blank, followed by anxiety, wanting to jump out of the car and kick the bolt gun handler away to change the tire himself.
But since the incident had already happened, no matter how anxious Qin Miao was, he could only calm down and drive out of the pit to continue the race.
In fact, Qin Miao couldn't even be hasty in the pit because according to FIA regulations, if the pit area is flagged purple during the race, a 5-second penalty could be imposed.
Meanwhile, at Five-Star Sports, the three commentators were also in utter disbelief upon witnessing the scene.
"What is happening?"
"This is Mercedes, how can their pit crew make such a basic mistake?"
"Ah! Qin Miao! What is Mercedes doing?"
"Qin Miao's championship! Why!"
"Verstappen already passed, maybe Hamilton will pass too!"
"8.1 seconds, my goodness."
...
[????]
[What the hell is Mercedes doing?]
[Such a good situation, and they fumbled.]
[Conspiracy theory: did Mercedes sabotage Qin Miao on purpose?]
[Toto should be dismissed!]
[Toto's a fool!]
[Wolff is fully responsible]
...
Online, there was a barrage of criticism for Mercedes's pit stop error.
Many people even conspiratorially believed that Mercedes was deliberately sabotaging Qin Miao because of his high placement in the standings.
In reality, the person who made the mistake during the pit stop was from Qin Miao's crew.
Though it wasn't Reyes, it was a technician who usually had a good relationship with Qin Miao.
Don't even suggest that someone from Qin Miao's crew could be bribed; the likelihood is low since Qin Miao and his crew are essentially all for one and one for all.
Moreover, after each pit stop error, the team reviews and traces the root cause of the mistake.
Then they will change suppliers if necessary and train the team to avoid a repeat of such incidents.
If it is indeed human error, the team would find out during the review.
Anyone behind the scenes would face the consequences if caught.
By the time Qin Miao exited the pit area, he had fallen behind Vettel.
Seeing Vettel in front of him, Qin Miao truly felt like he'd been screwed over.
The perfect start he had was thrown away by the team, and he regretted not staying out a few more laps—maybe it would have avoided the pit stop issue.
However, despite these thoughts, Qin Miao quickly collected himself and focused wholeheartedly on the race.
Anyway, his car was fast enough, and despite not having a new engine, Qin Miao felt he had a good chance to reclaim his position.
Over time, drivers starting on soft tires began to pit, some switching to medium tires but most to hard tires, likely planning to finish the race in one pit stop.
After the drivers in front of Qin Miao had their pit stops, Norris was the driver in front of him.
The race standings at that moment were as follows:
1: Verstappen
2: Ricardo
3: Hamilton
4: Leclerc
5: Norris
6: Qin Miao
7: Perez
8: Sainz
9: Stroll 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
10: Alonso
A single pit stop error cost Qin Miao five positions.
Despite having been let down by the team, by the time Hamilton pitted, Qin Miao had already caught up to 0.7 seconds behind Norris, closing the gap for the team.
In lap 34, as Qin Miao went through T11, he was only 0.5 seconds behind Norris.
Then, he fully utilized Norris's slipstream coming out of T11.
Although everyone knew Monza's slipstream effect is weak, weak doesn't mean non-existent, coupled with Qin Miao deploying several laps of ERS power at that moment.
