How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 699 - 293: Leclerc’s Home

So in this race, Qin Miao is highly likely to finish fifth.

"Well done, now run at your own pace." On Frankie's side, they didn't believe Qin Miao could catch up to Leclerc in the later stages of the race and started advising Qin Miao to run steadily.

Actually, it wasn't just Frankie who thought this way. After Qin Miao overtook Ricardo in front of him, the on-site broadcaster didn't focus much on Qin Miao anymore, instead putting the main focus on the battle between Verstappen and Hamilton ahead.

At this time, Verstappen was leading, with Hamilton closely following three seconds behind.

It's worth mentioning that Hamilton's tires had a significant advantage over Verstappen's because Hamilton pitted eight laps later than Verstappen.

So at this moment, the biggest highlight on the track was the duel between Hamilton and Verstappen.

Compared to the duel between Hamilton and Verstappen, Qin Miao overtaking so many cars was just an interesting diversion.

On the 49th lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc came down to 18 seconds.

Although the time gap was still quite large, Qin Miao managed to gain 4 seconds on Leclerc in just two laps, which wasn't entirely impossible to surpass Leclerc.

Unlike Qin Miao, who was quickly closing the gap between himself and Leclerc, even though Hamilton was faster than Verstappen every lap, averaging 0.4 seconds faster per lap than Verstappen,

Hamilton was still stuck 2 seconds behind Verstappen at this time.

On the 55th lap, six laps later, Qin Miao reduced the gap to Leclerc to 4 seconds.

The commentators were stunned when they saw the rate at which Qin Miao was closing in on Leclerc, wondering if Qin Miao's medium tires hadn't worn out.

Unfortunately, there were only two laps left in the race, and unless Leclerc made a mistake himself, Qin Miao didn't have much of a chance.

Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton was experiencing a similar situation.

After entering the turbulent air zone behind Verstappen, Hamilton's speed began to slow down, and now Hamilton was only 0.1 or 0.2 seconds faster than Verstappen per lap.

Despite doggedly reducing the time gap between himself and Verstappen, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was still at 1.2 seconds at this point.

Completely not having the conditions to attack Verstappen.

On the 56th lap, Qin Miao came within 3 seconds of Leclerc.

After running for such a long time, Qin Miao's tires also began to struggle. The closer he got to Leclerc, the more he was affected by the turbulent air, making it naturally difficult to increase speed under the double blow.

Moreover, Leclerc wasn't an easy target either. After noticing that Qin Miao's closing speed was unusually fast, he began to charge his car.

Once Qin Miao reached a threatening position relative to Leclerc, Leclerc began to accelerate.

Before the race ended, Qin Miao still couldn't reach the DRS zone behind Leclerc.

On the other side, in the final lap, Hamilton also couldn't catch up to Verstappen ahead of him.

Actually, Hamilton originally had a chance, but unfortunately, during the last lap, he encountered a slow Haas car.

This Haas slightly disrupted Verstappen's rhythm, slowing him down a bit. But unfortunately, just as Haas was blocking Verstappen, they were at the DRS detection point.

So in the following DRS zone, Verstappen, equipped with DRS, extended the gap between himself and Hamilton at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Hamilton could only watch as Verstappen's car drove further away helplessly.

In the end, Verstappen started from pole position and took the victory, completing his "Pole to Win" at the American Grand Prix.

Hamilton followed closely behind to finish in 2nd place. Even though it was a good finish, without Qin Miao disturbing the race, Hamilton only secured a second place, which probably wouldn't make him too happy.

Third across the finish line was Red Bull driver Perez, who, in the absence of Qin Miao, had gradually adapted to the Red Bull car and could unleash 80-90% of the car's performance.

Moreover, Perez ran the entire race without any water, as he discovered a problem with his car's drinking system right at the start of the race.

So, it's quite an achievement for him to secure third place under hydration-deprived conditions.

Of course, if Qin Miao were present, Perez definitely wouldn't have had a spot on the podium in this race.

Fourth was Leclerc, and fifth was Qin Miao, who started from the back of the grid.

But to be fair, chasing down Leclerc by 20 seconds over nine laps was such an astonishing feat that it gave a cold sweat to everyone at Ferrari, including Leclerc.

However, in the end, it turned out to be just a false alarm.

Qin Miao finished fifth, which, given he was penalized to start from the back, was a pretty good result at the Americas track, known for being difficult to overtake on.

Qin Miao was quite satisfied with his race result, with the only regret being not overtaking Leclerc in the final few laps.

After crossing the line, Qin Miao slightly controlled his speed, as the team had warned him via the radio during the pursuit of Leclerc that his car's fuel was running low due to the aggressive pursuit.