How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 726 - 301: Restless Little Hands

However, after the team's promotional video recording ended, Qin Miao got off work, while Hamilton still needed to shoot commercials and record interviews.

No choice, after all, Hamilton has many endorsements.

Thursday passed like this, and Qin Miao had a whole night's rest.

After a comfortable shower and a sound sleep, Qin Miao's day came to an end.

Soon, it was Friday, the official start of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian Grand Prix is the last race weekend of the season to use the sprint qualifying format.

Everyone was quite tense about this, after all, compared to a normal Grand Prix weekend, this week's practice session would be followed by qualifying.

The good news is that, thanks to the efforts of Qin Miao, Hamilton, and Mercedes team staff, Mercedes has already obtained two sets of setups that relatively match the Interlagos circuit.

As a result, this practice session might allow the team to find the optimal W12 qualifying setup.

During the practice session, Qin Miao, having changed into his racing suit and completed the pre-race preparations, sat inside the car. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Reyes placed a display screen between Qin Miao's racing slippers, and after setting it up, Frankie's voice came through Qin Miao's headphones: "You might also have noticed, the weather is nice today in Sao Paulo, with an air temperature of 15°, which is quite pleasant for November.

However, this temperature is not good news for the car's tires, as the track temperature is only 25°, so be careful with skidding when heading out, and keep an eye on tire temperature at all times.

The weather is cloudy with a 40% chance of rain, if rain clouds come, we'll notify you through TR immediately."

"Got it," Qin Miao replied to Frankie's words while looking at the data in front of him.

"The car is ready, you can head out anytime," Frankie's voice came over.

Qin Miao did one last check of all the car's settings to ensure they matched his choices, and then gave Reyes a thumbs-up to indicate he was ready.

After receiving Qin Miao's signal, Reyes instructed the team staff to remove the display, tire warming blankets, and everything else from Qin Miao's car.

Once everything had been removed, Reyes guided Qin Miao out of the team's pit area.

During the practice session, not only Qin Miao but almost all drivers were focusing on simulating qualifying lap times.

They couldn't afford not to take it seriously, as during qualifying, all drivers must push to the limit, and a small mistake could lead to a crash into the wall.

To minimize the chances of such incidents, both the team and the drivers made every effort to familiarize themselves with the soft tire handling on this track during the limited practice time.

Thanks to the intensive training before the race, Qin Miao and Hamilton adapted well to the Interlagos circuit, and soon both achieved competitive times.

By the end of the practice session, Hamilton and Qin Miao returned with the first and second best times.

Hamilton recorded a time of 1:09.040, while Qin Miao clocked 1:09.150.

Unlike regular Grand Prix weekends, at this stage, all drivers were pushing their limits during practice to ensure safety for themselves and their cars.

Hardly anyone would hold back at this time.

In other words, these lap times were somewhat indicative.

After the practice session, the team busied themselves with data analysis, while Qin Miao reviewed the replay of his fastest lap.

It's worth mentioning that during this time, the team had already pointed out the areas where Qin Miao could improve in his fastest lap.

After getting out of the car, Qin Miao had nothing more to say, just learn, improve, and integrate.

Soon, it was the afternoon.

Before the qualifying session, Qin Miao rested for half an hour to relieve the slight swelling in his head from the intense video analysis.

This qualifying session determined the starting order for tomorrow's sprint race.

Despite the complaints from fans and drivers both inside and outside the paddock about the sprint qualifying format, and even though Qin Miao felt it was somewhat redundant, with Saturday's sprint race being cautious of car damage, no driver wanted to engage in fierce battles with the cars in front.

But the FIA's rule is set, and there's no way to change it.

...

Although the FIA gave all teams an entire practice session to get familiar with their car's performance on the track, talent among people varies, as do teams.

While Mercedes could quickly find a suitable qualifying setup, other teams could not necessarily do the same.

In the first lap after Q1 began, the two Mercedes cars showcased frightening speed, with Hamilton and Qin Miao taking the top two positions right away.

Although Red Bull had performed very strongly in recent races, when it comes to team heritage, Red Bull couldn't quite compare to Mercedes.

So, when the clock stopped in Q1, the two Mercedes drivers were still in the top two positions, while the two Red Bull drivers qualified in fifth and sixth.