How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 688 - 289: Austin Qualifying (6K, 11/20 Extra) (Part 3)

And those drivers who replaced new engines all advanced to Q2, so to start further ahead in tomorrow's main race, Qin Miao still ran two flying laps in Q2.

With Qin Miao's capabilities and the Mercedes car, Qin Miao naturally advanced to Q3 with ease.

The drivers eliminated in Q2 were: O'Kang, Vettel, Giovinazzi, Alonso, Russell.

After all the drivers who accepted the penalty with Qin Miao in Q2 were out, Qin Miao didn't continue to run in Q3.

Just as Q3 started, the live broadcast director switched the camera to the Mercedes pit, zooming in on Qin Miao's car number 66.

At this moment, Qin Miao was getting out of the car, even though Q3 had just begun.

"Is Qin Miao getting out of the car?" The female commentator Libao asked with some surprise, "Is he going to the bathroom?"

Since the U.S. Grand Prix's schedule was a bit too early for domestic audiences, the qualifying round started at 5 a.m.

Commentators Fei and Bing, due to their age, lacked the energy to stay up late for commentary, so Libao, Zhou Haoran, and Wang Yang were responsible for today's qualifying and tomorrow's main race commentary.

Upon hearing Libao's question, Zhou Haoran explained, "Qin Miao is likely preparing to quit the session, since he replaced his entire power unit and gearbox components for this race, he will start at the back of the grid regardless of his qualifying position."

Wang Yang echoed, "Indeed, under penalty conditions, even if Qin Miao secured pole position in Q3, he would still start from the back. So instead of running another Q3 session, it's better to ensure the engine and gearbox are problem-free, and opt to save the engine after ranking higher than the other three penalized drivers.

After all, in a pre-race interview, Qin Miao mentioned that this would likely be his last engine component replacement for the season, barring any accidents.

He surely needs to protect his engine as much as possible to make it to the final race."

Without Qin Miao, the excitement of the Q3 qualifying was unaffected, with Hamilton and Verstappen's battle still spectacular.

In the Q3 stage, the lap times between these two were like a seesaw battle, each getting faster than the last.

Ultimately, Verstappen had the upper hand, likely due in large part to Newey's return from injury.

It could also be that the American track doesn't suit the muscular car of Mercedes.

After the Q3 clock stopped, the rankings of the qualifying drivers were as follows:

1: Verstappen

2: Hamilton

3: Perez

4: Leclerc

5: Sainz

6: Ricardo

7: Norris

8: Gasly

9: Tsunoda

10: Qin Miao

11: O'Kang

12: Vettel

13: Giovinazzi

14: Alonso

15: Russell

16: Stroll

17: Latifi

18: Kimi

19: Mick

20: Mazepin

However, the final ranking of the qualifying session does not represent the starting order for the race.

Tomorrow's main race starting positions are as follows:

(Austin track runs counterclockwise, but pole position is on the right.)

First row: Hamilton, Verstappen.

Second row: Leclerc, Perez.

Third row: Ricardo, Sainz.

Fourth row: Gasly, Norris.

Fifth row: O'Kang, Tsunoda.

Sixth row: Stroll, Giovinazzi.

Seventh row: Kimi, Latifi.

Eighth row: Mazepin, Mick.

Ninth row: Vettel, Qin Miao.

Tenth row: Russell, Alonso.

Qin Miao is starting from seventeenth place, the penultimate row.

Although this starting position is still not great, it's better than the team's earlier prediction of starting from the back.

At least Qin Miao has three fewer drivers to overtake ahead of him.

However, after the qualifying ended, Qin Miao also noticed a problem; Austin has been experiencing high temperatures recently.

Both the practice session and qualifying have shown that the soft tires are not well-suited to this track.

Pirelli's tire compounds for this race are C2-C4.

However, due to the temperatures and track characteristics, the soft tires in Austin tend to overheat easily, leading to graining and then excessive wear.

So even for Qin Miao, this race is not intended to achieve a miracle with soft tires.

It's not that Qin Miao doesn't want to, or doesn't have the ability, but mainly because the soft tires really can't last too many laps, especially when Qin Miao needs to drive aggressively and overtake the drivers ahead of him.

After Saturday's qualifying, the team developed two tire strategies for Qin Miao on Sunday: one is a Yellow-White single stop, and the other is a White-Yellow single stop.

Each pit-stop strategy has its own differences; the Yellow-White stop is a very conventional pit-stop strategy.

Qin Miao can run a long stint on Yellow Tires, using other drivers' pit stops to attempt to overcut them.

He can also rely on the car's performance and his offensive capabilities to overtake more drivers on track.

Under this pit-stop strategy, the team's strategy group has little room to maneuver, essentially leaving the race entirely in Qin Miao's hands, allowing him to control the race's direction and outcome.

The other pit-stop strategy, the White-Yellow single stop.

This strategy allows for more operational flexibility by the team, who can arrange different pit-stop times for Qin Miao according to the current on-track situation.

Of course, this pit-stop strategy also requires Qin Miao to complete a long stint.