How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 673 - 285: Continuous Rain at the Turkish Grand Prix

A single number is not enough to describe Alonso's accident on the track this time.

Vettel, on the other hand, did not experience such an incident. Hamilton directly overtook Vettel ahead of him, with this overtake purely relying on vehicle performance, nothing much to elaborate.

After a smooth start, Qin Miao began to cruise and gradually widened the time gap between himself and Verstappen behind him.

Not only was Qin Miao surprised by his speed in the rain battle being faster than Verstappen, but both Red Bull and Mercedes were also taken aback by this event.

Red Bull's side was in complete chaos, hurriedly checking if there was something wrong with Verstappen's car.

But what they could find out, the Mercedes side didn't know, anyway, they were quite pleased to see Verstappen unable to catch up with Qin Miao.

At the beginning of the race, they were worried for Qin Miao, but now it seems that the worry was completely unnecessary.

Lap 5, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him reached 2 seconds.

After reaching this time gap, Qin Miao didn't continue to widen the gap with Verstappen.

Although the team had already informed Qin Miao that according to meteorological department estimates, the rain might last for the whole race.

But the team's meteorological department didn't say the rain would definitely last the whole race, so the track conditions might improve later.

To cope with the possible environmental changes close to the end of the race, Qin Miao hoped his set of intermediate tires would last longer, so after not having the threat of Verstappen behind, Qin Miao entered tire management mode.

He controlled his lap time around 1:35.700, with speed fluctuation not exceeding ±0.1 seconds.

And Verstappen tried several times to get closer to Qin Miao, after all, there was still a points gap between them, and both needed to strive for their first career driver championship.

But Verstappen only managed to catch up to the back of Qin Miao in the ninth lap, and after that, he couldn't do anything because the team reminded him that his tires were already overheated. If he continued to push, the tire life would be much shorter than the team's calculation. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Ultimately, Verstappen could only reluctantly slow down his speed again, trying to stay within 1.5 seconds of Qin Miao.

But Qin Miao was obviously not going to give Verstappen a chance to attack, so Qin Miao quickly widened the gap again.

Although Verstappen continued to try attacking Qin Miao, Qin Miao could always slightly increase his speed before Verstappen closed in, so the time gap fluctuated between the two, but before the end of the race, there was never a real head-to-head battle.

As a result, the broadcast hardly focused on the two of them, with the lens primarily on Hamilton behind, who was constantly overtaking.

After all, compared to the two drivers idly circling at the front, Hamilton's overtaking showcase from behind was more captivating.

It's worth mentioning that by the 10th lap, Sainz, who was penalized to start from the back due to engine change, had already chased up to eleventh.

The chase speed was impressively fast.

At this time, Hamilton had reached seventh and began chasing Norris ahead of him.

On the long straight of the 11th lap, Hamilton completed his overtake on Norris, and Norris didn't even defend against Hamilton.

He might have acknowledged the gap in strength and vehicle performance between himself and Hamilton, along with no significant points conflict between them, so Norris opted for tire conservation rather than defending Hamilton, which was understandable.

After overtaking Norris ahead of him, Hamilton was only 4 seconds away from Gasly in front.

Within these 4 seconds, Hamilton completed an uninterrupted flying lap.

After this lap, Hamilton's data showed he was 1.5 seconds faster per lap than Qin Miao.

After realizing Hamilton's chase pace, the three commentators of Five-Star Sports were genuinely startled.

But soon they calmed down since Hamilton still had to pass a Gasly, a Perez, a Leclerc, and a Verstappen before reaching Qin Miao.

Since Qin Miao joined Mercedes, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports had never, like now, hoped Red Bull's drivers could defeat Hamilton.

Lap 15, Hamilton overtook Gasly ahead of him.

This overtake was purely a performance crush, nothing much to say.

After overtaking Gasly, Hamilton was 7 seconds away from Perez ahead.

Lap 17, due to continuously chasing the drivers ahead, Hamilton ran almost every lap without reservation during these 17 laps.

As a result, Hamilton's tires began degrading prematurely, and the tread on the inside of his intermediate tires was completely worn out.

On the contrary, Qin Miao's tires were still in good condition; the tread had slightly worn but still had considerable drainage performance.

Lap 20, Verstappen finally chose to give up attacking Qin Miao behind him.