How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 649 - 278: Teammates Meet, Eyes Blaze with Rivalry

However, unlike Hamilton changing from medium to hard tires, Verstappen switched from hard to medium tires.

For Hamilton, his pit stop went smoothly, it was just a routine stop.

But for Verstappen, the pit stop for his car's white tires seemed a bit too early.

With 34 laps remaining in the race, even though it might rain towards the end, it seemed premature for Verstappen to switch to medium tires at this point.

It's believed that as the race progresses, Verstappen's tires will struggle more, and his speed will gradually decrease.

Of course, Red Bull's decision is understandable.

Those with nothing to lose have nothing to fear.

Starting from the back, Verstappen has a chance, so he must press aggressively against Hamilton, and if necessary, gamble that the rain will be heavier than expected in the final stage.

Having little to begin with, he isn't afraid to play hardball with someone like Hamilton.

The risks and rewards for both sides are disproportionately different.

Hamilton rejoined behind Sainz, whereas Verstappen found himself behind Russell.

In between them were Ricardo and Russell.

It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao had already positioned himself ahead of Hamilton.

This time, the Mercedes strategy team didn't undermine Qin Miao, allowing him to even overcut his own teammate.

However, Hamilton has a significant tire advantage over Sainz, so if Qin Miao isn't fast enough, it's likely Hamilton will catch up quickly.

The conditions and opportunities provided to Qin Miao by his team depend on whether he can seize them.

In the 29th lap, Verstappen quickly overtook Russell ahead of him and began chasing Ricardo.

In the 30th lap, McLaren finally brought Norris in for a tire change.

They swapped to hard tires, naturally.

This pit stop lasted 2.9 seconds, although somewhat slow, given the time advantage Norris had earlier, this time loss was insignificant.

When Norris re-emerged, he was ahead of Gasly but behind Leclerc.

At this time, including Gasly, the four drivers ahead of Norris were all on hard tires and hadn't pitted yet.

This means Norris maintained his lead position.

Additionally, Norris had more than six seconds of clean air in front of him, and Gasly behind him could to some extent fend off Qin Miao and Hamilton's pursuit.

Norris also had a six-second gap between him and Gasly behind.

This means even if Qin Miao overtakes Gasly to chase Norris, Norris won't be worried about Qin Miao catching him up in the short term.

Moreover, while Qin Miao is pursuing him, Hamilton behind Qin Miao might have already broken free from the constraints of other drivers and started chasing Qin Miao.

If Qin Miao was replaced by Bottas at this moment, McLaren might have a bit of concern.

Because everyone knows Bottas is Hamilton's wingman, Mercedes' second driver.

If Hamilton catches up with Bottas, the Mercedes team would certainly ask Bottas to yield his position, giving Hamilton enough room to pursue Norris ahead.

Then the pressure would fall on Norris.

But the situation is different now.

Although Hamilton is still in his late prime, he is already 36, no longer young.

Qin Miao, however, is only 19 this year, 17 years younger than Hamilton, and gifted with exceptional talent like Hamilton in his prime.

Qin Miao even leads his seven-time champion teammate Hamilton in the championship standings at the moment.

Though the presence of these two drivers likely means the Mercedes dynasty might continue and extend for many years.

But it also presents another problem, as two tigers cannot coexist on a mountain; conflicts of interest are bound to happen between these two on the track.

At this point, the Mercedes team has no way to play favorites.

After all, both drivers are too important to them, one is the present, the other the future.

Therefore, Mercedes can only let the two drivers decide the outcome themselves on the track, all they can do is pray silently that they don't let the rivalry get the better of them.

The racing capabilities of the cars driven by these two top drivers are identical, so it's easy to imagine, the competition between them on the track can't determine a winner quickly.

And this is undoubtedly great news for McLaren and Norris.

In the 31st lap, Qin Miao initially thought it would take him at least 3 laps to chase down and catch Gasly.

Plus Gasly's adamant defense, it would take him at least until around laps 32 or 33 to overtake Gasly.

He just overestimated Gasly's ability to conserve tires, despite Gasly's genuine intention to maintain his position.

But Qin Miao stuck close behind Gasly as they exited T18, and Qin Miao's exit speed was noticeably faster; on the main straight, he overtook Gasly from the outside with sheer speed without entering the DRS zone.

Also, Qin Miao overtook Gasly just before the T1 DRS detection point, so arriving at T1, Qin Miao still had extra DRS to use.