How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 646 - 277: Sochi Main Race

The moment the five red lights went out, Qin Miao stepped hard on the accelerator of his race car.

The other cars also shot off at the first opportunity.

Qin Miao's start was just slightly slower than Hamilton's, and when the speed picked up, it was clear that Qin Miao was being pulled away by Hamilton.

At the same time, Brother Tou behind Qin Miao started particularly quickly, and soon after the start, he reached the position parallel to Qin Miao.

All the way to the fake corner of T1, Brother Tou took advantage of his outside line losing less traction, slightly surpassing Qin Miao by half a car length, and as the acceleration continued, this gap widened.

After passing through the fake corner of T1, all cars squeezed into T2 at the first opportunity.

At this time, Qin Miao on the inside line had a small advantage; Brother Tou, who originally side-surpassed by nearly half a car length, lost all his advantage due to Qin Miao's late braking maneuver and entered the apex of T2 wheel-to-wheel with Qin Miao.

Actually, Brother Tou's absolute speed was faster than Qin Miao's due to his perfect start, but since Hamilton and Ricardo were blocking ahead of Brother Tou, to prevent collision, Brother Tou slightly eased off the throttle, so he didn't directly overtake Qin Miao.

Cutting through T2, Brother Tou stuck to the right side of Qin Miao's car, without putting excessive pressure on Qin Miao, and the T2 in Sochi is relatively wide.

So, despite the close proximity between the two, no collision occurred.

After exiting T2, Qin Miao remained in a wheel-to-wheel state with Brother Tou.

Next comes T3.

T3 is a left-turn long corner, and although it's a long bend, it still counts as a fake corner; from entry to the braking point, it can be taken at full throttle.

And Qin Miao's car engine power was clearly stronger than Alonso on the inside line.

So after entering this long bend, Qin Miao began to gradually overtake Alonso beside him.

With full throttle all the way to T4.

Another late brake, and this time Qin Miao completely overtook Alonso before entering the corner, securing his position.

However, the chaotic situation on the track didn't improve; it wasn't until the end of the first lap that the field's stance became somewhat clearer.

After the start, Sainz, in second place, overtook Norris in first place, while Russell kept his start position.

Ricardo overtook Hamilton, moving into fourth.

Naturally, the person in front of Qin Miao changed from Ricardo to his teammate, Hamilton.

Behind Qin Miao were Alonso, Perez, Stroll, and O'Kang.

And the most impressive driver at the start was Leclerc, who started at the end of the grid.

This start, he directly rose from 19th to 13th, a total of 6 positions gained—truly extraordinary.

As for Sainz overtaking Norris ahead, it was entirely because the disadvantage of starting from pole position was too great.

The Sochi circuit has a long straight of up to one kilometer from the start to the T2 braking point without needing to slow down.

Even though Sainz's start wasn't as good as Norris', not even as good as Russell's, after the start, Sainz slipped into the slipstream of Norris ahead and overtook before the T2 braking point.

At that time, Norris had most of his attention focused on blocking Hamilton, not paying much attention to Sainz behind him, so Sainz managed to sneak through.

Despite some chaos, the good news was that there were no crashes on the track during the start phase, only some drivers ended up in the T2 escape area; everyone completed the first lap without incident.

Starting from the second lap, everyone began to drive their cars routinely.

At the beginning of the race, no one found a good opportunity to go after the car in front.

What made Qin Miao and Hamilton a bit anxious was the gradual increase in Russell's gap with the cars ahead, Sainz and Norris, as the race progressed.

By the fourth lap, the gap between Russell and Norris ahead had reached 5.9 seconds.

Russell's speed was not as fast as the drivers of the rear group, so by the third lap after the start, a DRS train had formed behind him.

The unlucky figures in this DRS train were Ricardo, Hamilton, Qin Miao, and Alonso.

And as time went on, Perez from behind gradually caught up.

Despite Qin Miao priding himself on his strong offensive ability and the strength of the Mercedes cars, being stuck in the DRS mini train, even Qin Miao found it hard to find a good overtaking opportunity.

Hamilton ahead of Qin Miao faced the same situation as Qin Miao.

By the 7th lap, the DRS mini train behind had turned into six cars, and the gap between Russell and Norris ahead had reached 8 seconds.

And continuing to race like this, the second and third groups on the track were about to connect together.

At this moment, Qin Miao, like his teammate Hamilton, was bored while managing his tires.

Because Russell was blocking ahead, Ricardo couldn't find a good opportunity to overtake Russell.

All Qin Miao could see at this moment was the unchanging rear end of the McLaren car.

At this point, a somewhat bored Qin Miao began to consider whether it would be viable to pit now and directly change to hard tires.