How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 708 - 295: Mexican Qualifying_2

In the first practice session, Qin Miao and Hamilton started complaining about the track conditions on their first lap.

The track was too dirty, and the organizers hadn't properly cleaned the surface. The racing line was covered with dust, pebbles, grass, and other debris.

The cars were noticeably sliding on the rear wheels while driving on it, even after the tires were heated up.

This condition persisted throughout both the first and second practice sessions.

However, as the practice sessions progressed into the later parts of the second session, the track conditions indeed improved, and all drivers posted faster times than in their first practice.

At the Rodriguez Brothers Circuit, which isn't particularly favorable for Mercedes cars, Qin Miao and Hamilton surprisingly took the top two spots during the practice sessions.

The time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton was minimal, only 0.131 seconds.

But the practice session results are merely for reference; Qin Miao and Hamilton from Mercedes gave it their all, while it is likely that the Red Bull drivers held back some of their performance.

After the first and second practice sessions, Qin Miao and Hamilton completed real-world tests on the new cooling system.

The results were naturally satisfying, as the team did not detect any signs of engine overheating. The cooling efficiency was better than expected, providing Mercedes cars with likely benefits during the long-distance races in the main event.

Aside from that, Qin Miao and Hamilton encountered numerous issues.

Even though the team set their cars with high downforce settings, both drivers reported a lack of downforce on the track.

Moreover, the tires tended to overheat, the car balance consistency had issues, DRS efficiency was low, and the brake temperatures were too high, among other concerns.

Honestly, no one at Mercedes anticipated facing so many problems once the race started.

During the first and second practice sessions, all technicians and engineers were urgently working to resolve these issues.

During the two-and-a-half hour break between the first and second practice sessions, Qin Miao and Hamilton had no free time, as the team's strategy group pulled them in to discuss the specific causes of the issues and to offer suitable solutions.

Luckily, the technical foundation of the Mercedes team was rich enough, and most of these issues were resolved by Friday. Handling other problems with another practice session by Saturday was not impossible.

Saturday.

Compared to Friday, more Mexican fans came to watch the race in person on Saturday.

Official reports stated that 200,000 fans arrived at the venue on Saturday.

Yesterday, some remote stands had only scattered fans, but today all the stands were packed with local Mexican fans.

Moreover, most fans wore Red Bull's black team attire, while the usually numerous fans of Ferrari were not as visible in this race.

During Saturday's third practice session, Qin Miao and Hamilton completed the final adjustments of their cars, resolving all known and unknown issues.

However, what surprised both Qin Miao and Hamilton was that Red Bull seemed to suddenly awaken during the third practice session, becoming exceptionally fast.

By the end of the third practice, the average time gap between Red Bull and Mercedes cars was 0.6 seconds.

This time gap left everyone at Mercedes somewhat bewildered.

"How did that bunch manage to pull this off?" This question lingered in the minds of everyone at Mercedes, but fortunately, no one felt panicked or troubled.

Soon, the third practice ended, followed by a short two-hour rest, before the qualifying session for the Mexican Grand Prix.

This session was again covered by the three commentators from Five-Star Sports.

In the Q1 phase of qualifying, Qin Miao and Hamilton didn't complete their first flying laps when a red flag appeared on the track.

The reason was that Stroll experienced a spin during the exit phase, causing the car to crash severely, completely blocking traffic at the grid, without easy removal options, leaving the officials no choice but to bring out the red flag.

20 minutes later, with Stroll's car debris cleared and the car towed away, Q1 restarted.

However, as the drivers came out of the pit lane, there were merely 10 minutes left in Q1, and several drivers hadn't posted a time yet.

Everyone understood that it was necessary to quickly hit the track to post a valid time under any circumstances.

With limited time and heavy tasks, coupled with 20 cars racing on the track, traffic problems could easily cause a decline in qualifying lap times.

Therefore, upon Qin Miao's proactive request, the team promptly sent Qin Miao out of the pit lane.

At 6:19 in Q1, Qin Miao completed his first flying lap with a time of 1:16.991.

This time brought Qin Miao up to second place.

After finishing this lap, Qin Miao returned to the team's paddock, and for the remainder of Q1, he did not go out again, as it was unnecessary.

This time was sufficient for Qin Miao to be safely promoted to Q2.

Ultimately, at the end of Q1, Qin Miao advanced to Q2 in fourth place, smoothly and without danger.

Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton also advanced to Q2 with his first flying lap.

After a ten-minute rest and adjustment in the pit lane, Qin Miao slightly increased the angle of his front wing before driving his car onto the track.

Adjustments to the car's settings during qualifying are indeed restricted, but these restrictions do not include adjusting the front wing angle.

The reason Qin Miao did this was primarily because Q2 would be run on medium tires, which naturally have less grip compared to soft tires.

Qin Miao needed to compensate for this lost downforce from other areas, and since other areas were difficult to adjust, he could only manipulate the front wing.

Q2 quickly began.

Verstappen posted a lap time of 1:16.483 on his first lap.

Hamilton quickly responded with a time of 1:16.499.

Although Hamilton wasn't as fast as Verstappen, the time gap between them was only 0.016 seconds, similar to having no gap at all. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Half a minute later, Qin Miao completed his first flying lap of Q2 with a time of 1:16.583, just 0.1 seconds slower than Verstappen.

After completing this lap, Qin Miao was in third place.

After finishing this round, Qin Miao immediately slowed his car down and safely brought it back to the paddock.

Qin Miao's time in Q2 was similar to his time in Q1, sufficient for him to advance to the next round.

However, Qin Miao did not choose to refrain from running further like in Q1 after achieving a stable qualifying time.

But when Qin Miao returned to the track, he was using a set of soft tires that had been running for several laps.

Qin Miao was clearly utilizing the remaining time for long-distance testing.

He was looking to see how the soft tires performed once they were excessively worn.

Eventually, Qin Miao advanced to Q3 with fourth place in Q2, without incident.

As soon as Q3 started, the Mercedes strategy group explained to Qin Miao and Hamilton their plan to have them draft each other.

Of course, the team stated they would not interfere with any internal competition between Qin Miao and Hamilton, but within internal issues, defeating Red Bull clearly had a higher priority for Mercedes.

Thus, the team hoped that Qin Miao and Hamilton would draft each other once during Q3.

This would effectively gain an advantage during qualifying, making the main race easier to run.

Qin Miao naturally had no objections, and after a brief moment of thought, Hamilton also agreed.

After all, the start straight at Rodriguez Brothers Circuit is very long. Although the slipstream effect is not pronounced due to the thin air, in qualifying, the effect is still present, more or less providing the trailing car with some speed.