How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 692 - 291: Red Bull’s DRS Train Tactics

Soon, the race reached the fifth lap.

At this time, the DRS had been activated by the race committee, and Qin Miao spent the previous laps recharging his nearly depleted battery after the start. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

By the fifth lap, Qin Miao finally closed in to 0.5 seconds behind Russell, with his battery charged up to 70%.

Next was the hunting moment.

At turns T16, 17, and 18, Qin Miao stuck closely behind Russell's car, trying not to let him pull away.

After exiting T18 and passing the DRS detection point, Qin Miao was 0.6 seconds behind Russell.

Then came turn T19.

In T19, Russell was on the defensive line.

It was evident that although there was no point conflict between Russell and Qin Miao, and there was a significant performance gap between their cars, Russell was very keen on defending Qin Miao.

The reason was naturally not hard to guess.

Since Russell was already on the defensive line, Qin Miao did not launch an attack recklessly.

Instead, he took the normal racing line.

As a result, after exiting T19, Qin Miao's speed was noticeably faster than Russell's.

As they approached T20, Russell again took the defensive line but braked early.

This was clearly an attempt to exit the turn side by side with Qin Miao and use his position to squeeze Qin Miao off the track after exiting the turn.

There were sausage kerbs and grass outside the exit of T20, and if Qin Miao was really squeezed over, his speed would definitely take a big hit.

It could even cause car damage or an error leading to crashing into the wall and retiring from the race.

How did Qin Miao know so clearly?

As a driver good at defense, Qin Miao was well aware of what defensive strategies his opponent might employ, how to execute them, and what the preconditions and actions were.

The offense and defense in racing followed the principle of learning by analogy.

So seeing Russell braking early, Qin Miao pretty much guessed his little schemes.

Qin Miao had enough self-control that despite seeing a large space in front of him, he didn't take advantage. Instead, he broadened his exit angle in T20 and took a dramatically exaggerated crossover line.

Seeing Qin Miao's maneuver, Russell was already feeling defeated.

It's over; with the crossover line, I can't defend.

Although still angry at Qin Miao for taking his driver seat at Mercedes suddenly,

Russell had to admit Qin Miao's incredible racing intelligence and sense after this bout of offense and defense.

Defending against Qin Miao was futile, as Russell felt completely outmaneuvered.

After exiting T20, even without DRS, Qin Miao's car accelerated faster than Russell's.

Despite both using new engines, and both engines being from Mercedes.

But given Mercedes is the factory team, it's quite normal for their engine horsepower to be 5 more than customer teams, isn't it?

Plus, Qin Miao took a crossover line, accelerating earlier than Russell with more time to speed up.

Shortly after exiting the turn, there was another DRS zone.

So it was no surprise that Qin Miao surpassed Russell before completing the third sector of lap 5.

At this point, Russell could still make a desperate move and steer left to block Qin Miao.

However, all these maneuvers were futile given the current situation, and watching the distant Mercedes number 66 car, Russell chose to accept reality.

After overtaking Russell, Qin Miao moved up one position, reaching twelfth.

The two drivers ahead of him were Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi and Kimi.

Originally, Russell's gap with them was within 2 seconds, but due to defending against Qin Miao's attack, by the time Qin Miao caught up, the gap between Qin Miao and Kimi had increased to 3 seconds.

Of course, this gap wasn't considered long by Qin Miao.

If necessary, Qin Miao could catch up in two laps, but considering tire durability, Qin Miao maintained his pace chasing the drivers ahead without aggressive actions like in qualifying.

By the seventh lap, Qin Miao was 0.6 seconds behind Kimi.

This time, Qin Miao completed the overtake in the DRS zone between T11 and T12.

Unlike Russell, when Qin Miao approached and overtook Kimi, Kimi didn't make any defensive moves, essentially letting Qin Miao pass.

After overtaking Kimi, 1.2 seconds ahead was Giovinazzi.

In the third sector of the eighth lap, Qin Miao overtook Giovinazzi at the same spot he overtook Russell.

The way Qin Miao overtook Giovinazzi was almost identical to how he overtook Russell.

It's clear that Giovinazzi also didn't want to lose the precious point, but faced with the absolute performance and driver skill gap, his resistance seemed somewhat futile.

In the eighth lap, Qin Miao completed his overtake of Giovinazzi, reaching tenth place.

In eight laps, he climbed from seventeenth to tenth, although four positions were gained from the chaos at the start.

But being able to capitalize on the chaos and climb another four positions is enough to prove Qin Miao's strength.