How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 691 - 290: Perfect Start (Part 2)

Soon, the staff on both sides of the track withdrew.

After receiving the instruction, Qin Miao also secured his helmet visor.

The warm-up lap is about to begin.

As two green lights lit up on the signal, Verstappen was the first to move out of his starting grid.

Subsequently, the cars behind followed one after another, including Qin Miao.

After completing a simple warm-up lap, the drivers parked neatly in their respective positions.

Qin Miao adjusted the car's settings to the starting mode, stopping precisely within his grid.

Since starting from the back of the grid, Qin Miao delayed taking his position as much as possible, hoping to cool down the tires of the few cars in front.

Ideally, Qin Miao wished those in front would clash during the start, giving him ample time to catch them up.

Of course, this was just a thought, as he knew that with their racing skills and intelligence, hardly anyone would make a rash move at the start.

Even if someone did make a move, it would be due to a mistake from the driver ahead or an exceptionally good start of their own.

However, as the five red lights in the distance gradually lit up, any cluttered thoughts vanished from Qin Miao's mind.

Taking a deep breath, narrowing his eyes, he focused on the five red lights far away, Qin Miao began increasing his engine's revs.

In this moment, time seemed to slow for Qin Miao; he could hear his heartbeat clearly, but treated it as mere background noise, isolating it from his focus.

At this time, he lost all sense of hearing, with only vision and those five indicator lights remaining in his senses.

The five red lights fully lit up and suddenly went out.

Qin Miao released the clutch button abruptly, springing the car into action!

Qin Miao's car launched at once.

Starting from the back of the grid is nothing like starting at the front; he had to be aware of the drivers and positions ahead to dodge any possible crashes.

He also needed to keep some attention on what's behind, preventing anyone from having an extraordinary start and overtaking him.

After all, Alonso and Russell were directly behind him.

Both are very skilled at starting, and if Qin Miao didn't want the hard-earned positions from the qualifiers to be lost at the start, the quality of his start was crucial.

After the start, Qin Miao's speed was decent, whereas Alonso, known for his good starts, didn't have a great one. It's possible that experience taught him not to push too much when starting from the rear.

Thus, on purpose, he didn't start very fast.

Successfully off the line, Qin Miao capitalized, lining up wheel to wheel with Mazepin at the T1 braking point.

Neither Qin Miao nor Mazepin ever imagined they'd go wheel to wheel into a corner someday.

Mazepin didn't intend to block Qin Miao, but neither did he yield the inside line.

Qin Miao hence opted for the outside line.

The outside line at T1 of the Americas circuit is very spacious; as he approached the outside to enter the corner, seeing four cars side by side, Qin Miao sensibly eased off and avoided the mix.

Notably, mid-turn at T1, Latifi clipped the poorly-started Stroll into a spin.

As a result, all the cars behind them were hindered, and their speed reduced.

Conversely, Qin Miao on the outside line wasn't significantly affected.

Exiting the turn, Russell was now the car in front of Qin Miao.

Indeed, it was Russell, who started from twentieth.

Sometimes, you've got to admire Russell's ability to seize opportunities; starting from the rear gave him an inside line advantage.

When other drivers got stuck from the T1 incident, he forced his way through the innermost corner, overtaking at a speed faster than any outside line drivers.

Honestly, when Qin Miao returned to the normal racing line and saw a Williams in front of him, he was stunned.

When did this guy get here?

After T1, the route was all continuous corners, a section without many overtaking opportunities.

So Qin Miao trailed behind Russell while also keeping an eye on Vettel and Alonso behind him.

Yes, now from twelfth to fifteenth were the four who were relegated to the back after engine changes.

Seeing these experienced veterans behind him, Qin Miao could only shake his head, marveling at their racecraft.

After that, Qin Miao's position didn't change significantly.

But for Qin Miao, moving up four spots immediately at the start was a result he wouldn't have dared dream of before the race began. Now he couldn't be more satisfied.

"Well done, Qin Miao, you're now in thirteenth position, keep up the pace, aim for the top three by the end of the race, we believe in you." After the start, as the race settled, Frankie was quick to encourage Qin Miao over the team radio.

"Copy, watch me perform."

...

Meanwhile, the Mercedes pit was jubilant.

Toto punched the air in celebration right after the start.

Toto was happy both because Qin Miao made a brilliant start, gaining four places instantly, and because Hamilton's start was also near perfect.

Hamilton had more speed than pole-holder Verstappen from the start.

Plus, the starting position at the Americas track was against the pole-sitter.

T1 was a left turn while the pole-sitter started from the right side of the track.

This meant that the second-place driver, if positioned behind the pole-sitter's rear half, could easily take the lead after T1.

And Hamilton had a very good start this time. Though Verstappen noticed Hamilton's superb start and tried to cut left to squeeze him out,

by then they were side by side. Apart from pushing Hamilton to the dirty side of the track, Verstappen's maneuver didn't achieve much.

In the braking phase, Hamilton braked earlier than Verstappen, yet holding the inside line meant he exited faster than Verstappen, pushing him off the track as they reached the curb.

Nevertheless, Verstappen didn't lose much speed after being pushed off, more avoiding the incident proactively than being pushed.

Returning to the track after T1, Verstappen hadn't lost a place.

However, going off the track means less grip on the painted surface compared to the asphalt.

When Verstappen rejoined the track, it was wheel to wheel with teammate Perez, Verstappen ahead, Perez behind.

This set up a potential duel, and if Perez was determined, he could have emulated Hamilton and pushed Verstappen off.

However, there was no real interest clash between Perez and Verstappen at the time.

Even if Perez won every race and set the fastest laps for the rest of the season, he couldn't catch Verstappen in points by season-end.

Moreover, Perez knew if he fought Verstappen, the team would definitely issue team orders.

So after following Verstappen for a couple of corners, Perez voluntarily slowed down, letting Verstappen pass.

Thus, despite minor hiccups at the start, things went smoothly overall, and the race officially began.