How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 677 - 286: First Career Grand Slam (6K, Bonus 9/20)_2

Since the team repeatedly insisted, Hamilton ultimately chose to trust the team's judgment.

On the 51st lap, with 7 laps remaining in the race, he opted for a pit stop to change tires.

However, during the pit stop tire change, Hamilton was clearly somewhat dissatisfied, continuously complaining in the team TR.

Because he truly felt that a pit stop for a tire change at this moment was not a very good choice.

But at this point, Hamilton had already pitted, apart from a couple of complaints, he was powerless to change anything.

When Hamilton exited the pit lane, he was already behind Leclerc, now ranking fifth.

After exiting, Hamilton's speed was indeed faster than Leclerc, in the second sector of the out lap he was 0.9 seconds quicker, and over one lap he was 3 seconds faster than Leclerc.

It was clear that Hamilton still wanted to improve his position.

However, when Hamilton got within a second of Leclerc from behind, the laps spent pursuing Leclerc caused Hamilton's tires to overheat.

Consequently, Hamilton's tires experienced severe graining, and coupled with the turbulent air from the front car, Hamilton's car speed noticeably dropped; he couldn't catch up with Leclerc ahead!

Even during the time he was stuck behind Leclerc, Gasly behind also caught up.

Seeing this, Hamilton began to frantically complain in the team TR.

"I told you I wasn't going to pit!"

...

If Qin Miao were placed in the team strategy group, Qin Miao definitely wouldn't have let Hamilton pit for a tire change, even if Hamilton's tires could barely hold on, with a tire burst possibly happening in the next lap.

From Qin Miao's current feeling, after Hamilton pitted he could have tried switching to intermediate tires.

After all, everyone on the track was using worn smooth tires with semi-wet tires, suggesting that the track should barely meet dry tire working conditions.

Unfortunately, the Mercedes team's strategy group is still comprised of humans, and humans make mistakes.

Moreover, they're not like Qin Miao who has been racing on the track all this time, thus they're not as sensitive to track condition changes as Qin Miao the driver is.

Furthermore, with the recent incident where Vettel pitted, switched to intermediate tires, and slipped off the track, no one in the strategy group dared to suggest having Hamilton pit for dry tires.

And this time calling Hamilton into the pit for a tire change was clearly a major blunder.

By the 56th lap, not only was Hamilton gradually widened by Leclerc, but Gasly behind was now only 1.2 seconds away.

Gasly already had the condition to attack Hamilton and started pressuring him.

Of course, the Mercedes car and the Red Bull car fundamentally have a performance gap.

So Gasly could only get close to Hamilton; after reaching a position affected by Hamilton's slipstream, it was clearly impossible for Gasly to go further in the rain.

Thus, from Gasly catching up to Hamilton until the race ends, Gasly never found a real chance to make a move on Hamilton.

On the final lap, Qin Miao calmly finished the race.

Notably, on the final lap over the line, Qin Miao also set his fastest lap with a time of 1:30.432.

Finally, Qin Miao crossed the line amid cheers from the Mercedes staff hanging on the protective wall.

"Good job, Qin Miao! P1, we're P1, a clean and beautiful race, well done!" Toto personally sent his congratulations to Qin Miao.

"Qin Miao, I'm James; today was excellent; this is your first career Grand Slam - Pole to win, leading the entire race, fastest lap, you got them all, really terrific!" The chief technical officer also sent congratulations to Qin Miao.

"Hahaha, Let's go!!!" Qin Miao was also very happy; winning a race released all of the frustration from being dominated by his teammates and Verstappen in recent races.

"Thanks, everyone; today the car's condition was pretty good; thanks for giving me such a great car," Qin Miao also expressed gratitude to the team's technicians.

"Got it, you did great too." Reyes smiled and replied to Qin Miao's thanks on TR, as chief technician, he does have the right to speak for the other technicians in the team.

After crossing the line, Qin Miao waved to the crowd while driving his car back to the pit lane.

He parked the car in first place, and due to excitement even knocked down the sign for first place.

After Qin Miao's car was parked, two Red Bulls also parked in their positions.

The two white Red Bulls parked on either side of the black Mercedes car, like two guards surrounding Qin Miao's car.

After parking, Qin Miao eagerly got out of the car; after reinstalling the steering wheel onto the car, Qin Miao jogged to the front of his car to prop up the fallen first-place sign and then laughingly rushed into Reyes' crowd.

The back, helmet, even the buttocks, the excited Mercedes technicians couldn't care less about what they were patting; after all, isn't this how celebrations should be?

Only after a while did Qin Miao finally get put down by them; then Qin Miao went over to Hamilton's team, after all, they are part of the same team.