How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 717 - 298: Overtake! Overtake Them Hard!
On lap 18, at T12, Qin Miao came within 1 second behind Alonso in the DRS zone.
On lap 19, Qin Miao began attacking Alonso in front of him, but after all, Alonso is Alonso.
Initially, Qin Miao thought he could rely on the performance of his car to forcefully overtake, but Alonso's defense wasn't much weaker than Qin Miao's.
Two perfect defenses humbled Qin Miao.
One was a late braking on the inside at T1, just blocking the path of Qin Miao's crossover line, and the other was at T12 on the 19th lap, using the same operation to block Qin Miao's exit line.
Finally, after suffering twice, Qin Miao calmed down.
On lap 21, after charging his car's battery to 70% over two laps, Qin Miao, with DRS and rich fuel mode along with battery release, finally overtook Alonso in front of him on the main straight after crossing the line, moving up to 9th place.
What Qin Miao didn't know was that while he marveled at Alonso's impeccable defense skills, Alonso was equally impressed by Qin Miao's strong talent.
Watching the Mercedes in front with its charging indicator lights flashing, Alonso felt a mix of emotions.
The young drivers today are truly terrifying; after just defending twice, he could keenly realize the need to change his approach and accurately adapt his attack strategy based on track characteristics.
If this analysis wasn't from the team's guidance, but instead the result of the Chinese driver's independent thought, then his future is truly limitless.
Could he be the next Hamilton?
I'm getting old...
After overtaking Alonso, the driver in front of Qin Miao was Kimi.
At this stage of the race, basically all drivers who started on medium tires were experiencing tire degradation.
Therefore, the disadvantage of using hard tires that Qin Miao had initially was gradually disappearing.
But just as Qin Miao prepared to seize the opportunity and also take down Kimi, he received some bad news through the TR.
"Qin Miao, change the engine mode to 2."
Although Qin Miao was a bit puzzled, he still adjusted the engine to normal mode.
Then he asked somewhat confusedly: "What happened?"
"The engine is overheating a bit, didn't you feel it?"
After Frankie's reminder, Qin Miao then realized that his back indeed felt somewhat burning, but for an F1 driver, the environment inside the cockpit is rarely comfortable, so Qin Miao could still withstand this bit of heat.
Staring at Kimi 1.2 seconds ahead of him, Qin Miao clicked his tongue in slight regret.
"It's indeed a bit hot." After answering, Qin Miao understood the reason, but he still unwillingly asked: "Don't we have the upgraded new radiator parts? Why is the engine overheating still happening?"
After hearing Qin Miao's question, Frankie rolled his eyes in annoyance. Don't you already have a clue why?
Because of the five laps under the safety car, all drivers had excess fuel.
As a result, Qin Miao had kept the engine in rich fuel mode since the race started.
More fuel means better performance but also more heat buildup.
The fact that Qin Miao's car engine held up until this point before overheating is already commendable.
Nevertheless, Qin Miao's car still maintained a "little bit" of advantage compared to Alfa Romeo.
Gradually closing in little by little on Kimi, Qin Miao finally overtook him on the main straight of lap 24.
Yet another standard late braking on the inside, nothing much to elaborate.
And Qin Miao also felt that Kimi wasn't particularly focused on defending against him; he seemed to have a permissive mindset of overtaking if you want at that moment.
After overtaking Kimi, Qin Miao moved up to 8th, 4 seconds away from Vettel ahead.
The good news was that Vettel was also using medium tires, and as lap times continually increased, his speed was beginning to decline.
It was foreseeable that Qin Miao would also raise his blade against Vettel.
