How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 720 - 299: Did He Really Complete a Stint on Hard Tires?

After the situation was recognized as abnormal on the Toro Rosso side, Gasly was immediately ordered: "Qin Miao is very likely to finish the race on one set of hard tires. Accelerate, accelerate now!"

Gasly was puzzled; the race was almost over, so why was he still in 5th place and hadn't returned to 4th?

Upon hearing the team's reminder, Gasly belatedly realized, what? Qin Miao hasn't pitted yet?

At this moment, Gasly didn't have the leisure to think about why Qin Miao's tires were so durable. Realizing his position was at risk, all he could do was accelerate fully and attempt to catch up to Qin Miao in the remaining 15 laps of the race, and reclaim his position under Qin's defense.

Besides Gasly, Leclerc and Sainz, who was behind Leclerc, also immediately received team orders: "Qin Miao likely intends to use one set of white tires to finish the entire race. Start accelerating and try to overtake Qin Miao before the race ends."

The moves of the drivers behind were, of course, noticed by Qin Miao, and his team promptly reminded him as well.

But Qin Miao was rather helpless at this point; his tires were indeed struggling. Though Qin was confident in finishing the race on this set of tires, he really couldn't extract any more speed from them.

Maintaining the current speed was already the limit of what Qin Miao could do at this point.

Strictly speaking, Qin Miao shouldn't expect a set of hard tires that had run 55 laps to provide more speed.

Lap 59, the time gap between Gasly and Qin Miao shrank from 6.5 seconds to 4.5 seconds.

Lap 61, the gap narrowed to 3.7 seconds.

Lap 65, 2.2 seconds.

Just when everyone at Red Bull thought Gasly could continue to close in on Qin Miao and reclaim that position before the race ended,

Gasly found himself involuntarily slowing down in his pursuit of Qin Miao.

At this moment, Gasly was already within a distance where he was affected by the turbulent air generated by Qin Miao's car. At the end of the second sector and throughout the third sector, Gasly could no longer close in on Qin Miao as quickly as he could when there was no turbulent air.

However, in the first sector, Gasly was still visibly closing the time gap between himself and Qin Miao.

Lap 68, after 3 laps, Gasly finally got within 1.5 seconds behind Qin Miao.

But at this point, Gasly encountered many problems. Due to the turbulent air from the car in front, radiator pressure suddenly increased, and the extended pursuit caused Gasly's car engine to overheat.

The ERS was depleted, and because of the turbulent airflow from Qin Miao's car, Gasly was somewhat surprised to find he could not continue closing in on Qin Miao after reaching a distance of 1.7 seconds behind him.

In the first sector, using the slipstream of Qin Miao's car, Gasly got within approximately 1.2 seconds behind. But by the second and third sectors, Qin Miao could rely on Mercedes' superior mechanical grip to hold off Gasly once again.

In short, both of them were thoroughly stuck now.

Gasly, being stuck behind Qin Miao, was starting to panic, given there were only three laps left. He asked hastily over team radio: "What's going on? Why does Qin Miao still have speed? Just how fast is he?"

Not just Gasly, but Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, even the FIA stewards, Pirelli staff, spectators at the scene, viewers watching the race, live directors, and commentators from various countries were all bewildered.

They all had the same question as Gasly: why could Qin Miao's tires keep going?

It was already Lap 68, Qin Miao's hard tires had run 67 laps, how did they still have grip?

At Red Bull's command post, Horner and Marco exchanged glances.

They couldn't believe the current state of affairs. Reflecting on their earlier overconfident statements, they felt as if they had been slapped in the face by car number 66 on the track.

Lap 70, Gasly looked on desperately at the 1.7-second gap between him and Qin Miao, eyes full of unwillingness and confusion.

What caliber of monster is this Chinese driver in front of me? How can his white tires run for so long?

In the last two laps, Gasly used every trick he had, pressuring, attacking, feinting, and fully deploying DRS to chase.

But the Mercedes in front of him seemed oblivious to his maneuvers, maintaining its rhythm unless Gasly posed a tangible threat.

Over these two laps, Gasly indeed couldn't find any opportunity to attack Qin Miao.

By the end of Lap 71, when Verstappen crossed the finish line, the gap between Qin Miao and Gasly still held at 1.4 seconds.

When Qin Miao crossed the finish line, Gasly only just made it into the DRS zone behind Qin Miao.

Finally, the race ended.

Verstappen took the victory, Hamilton was second, and the home favorite Perez finished third.

Despite Qin Miao's standout performance in this race, it was undeniably a sweeping victory for Red Bull.