How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 700 - 293: Leclerc’s Home

The team estimated that Qin Miao's fuel would barely be enough for him to drive the car back, but he couldn't accelerate aggressively anymore.

So Qin Miao gently stepped on the gas, then coasted for a bit, using this method to gradually guide the car to the pit lane.

However, as Qin Miao was doing his lap back to the track, the audience on-site warmly applauded and cheered for him.

Qin Miao also became the audience's voted best driver of the race.

No one was surprised by this honor.

After all, in this race, Qin Miao's performance was indeed worthy of the audience's affection.

When Qin Miao was doing his lap back, he saw many people revealing their long-hidden orange smoke bombs.

All the Red Bull and Verstappen fans were having a celebration.

While Qin Miao was still pondering what to do if he encounters a DRS train again in the next race, he suddenly heard Frankie's somewhat anxious voice coming from the team radio: "Stop, stop, there's not enough fuel."

Qin Miao: ...

Helplessly, Qin Miao had to stop his car at the pit lane entrance.

Fortunately, Qin Miao was driving back at a slow speed, so he was the last driver to reach the pit lane entrance, stopping there without worrying about blocking other drivers from returning to the pit lane.

Nevertheless, Qin Miao received a five-second-long camera shot of him getting out of the car during Verstappen's celebration, which somewhat gave him a sense of participation in the post-race celebration.

Then the broadcast showed the two Red Bull drivers and the Red Bull team's celebration.

At this stage, the track was also opened, and fans in the stands poured onto the track in a frenzy.

Meanwhile, Matthew and the crew hurriedly rushed towards Qin Miao's car.

They needed to push Qin Miao's car into the pit for inspection before the audience completely blocked the pit lane entrance.

Otherwise, who knows what the audience, who could even take the DRS signs home, would do to Qin Miao's car.

Qin Miao also lent them a hand.

While controlling the car's steering wheel, he helped Matthew and the crew push the car.

The main reason Qin Miao did this was to keep the steering wheel in his hands.

It's not that Qin Miao didn't trust Matthew, fearing they'd take his steering wheel.

The main concern was that they might accidentally crash the car while helping him push it.

As workers on a budget, they couldn't afford the cost of an F1 car's damage.

Moreover, with Qin Miao in control, it's unlikely for his car to crash; even if it did sustain damage, Qin Miao wouldn't have to bear any cost as the team would cover it.

So, in a way, Qin Miao was being responsible for Matthew and the crew.

By the time Qin Miao pushed his car back to the pit, Hamilton was already being interviewed.

However, Qin Miao didn't tease him. If Hamilton had won the championship in this race, Qin Miao would definitely have rushed over to tickle Hamilton or something upon seeing him being interviewed.

But since Hamilton only managed to finish second in this race, Qin Miao merely walked past behind the camera crew responsible for post-race interviews, not forgetting to nod and give a thumbs-up to Hamilton.

Hamilton paused mid-sentence to return the gesture to Qin Miao before continuing the interview.

After the weight check, Qin Miao didn't pay much attention to the subsequent award ceremony.

He found Eliza and participated in a post-race interview with her.

In this interview, Qin Miao mainly talked about future races; as for this race, it was passable at best.

After the interview, Qin Miao also saw Leclerc, who had just finished his own interview.

They were the last drivers to be interviewed, so naturally, they left together.

"Why did you come back so late? I was looking for you for ages when you stopped." Leclerc asked curiously while sipping water to rehydrate.

Qin Miao was holding a MoGrip stainless steel cup filled with his health drink: "I was pushing to the limits chasing you in the later stages of the race. My car was almost out of fuel, and the team told me to stop at the pit lane entrance, so I had to push it back manually, which is why I was a bit late."

"Speaking of which, I was really startled by the speed of your chase back on track. A lap gaining 2 seconds, what on earth is your Mercedes hiding?" Leclerc recollected the helplessness he felt when his team told him about the gap between him and Qin Miao, jesting: "I really thought you'd overtake me before the race was over."

Fortunately, in the end, it turned out to be a false alarm."

Qin Miao shrugged his mouth helplessly upon hearing this: "The DRS train saved you. If it weren't for those two DRS trains, you might not have been able to secure fourth place in this race."

Leclerc naturally knew what a DRS train was, and in a season where the turbulent air from the front car greatly affected the following car, even overtaking experts like Qin Miao could get stuck in a DRS train, so Leclerc also despised the DRS train.

But since he was a participating driver in this race, not an audience member,

he naturally didn't know Qin Miao encountered two DRS trains in this race. So when he first heard Qin Miao's words, he didn't feel much, but hearing the third part made him a bit annoyed.