How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 741 - 306: Eight Crowns!

During the time Qin Miao slowed down, Hamilton started accelerating without regard to tire wear. What he intended was clear—to use the car's performance advantage to overcut Verstappen during Verstappen's pit stop.

Thus, Hamilton stayed on the track for three more laps, only choosing to pit at the end of the forty-third lap.

However, Mercedes somewhat underestimated Red Bull's speed.

When Hamilton came out, he was three seconds behind Verstappen, even though he was 1.1 seconds behind Verstappen before Verstappen pitted.

It can be said that this pit stop only gained Hamilton three laps of tire wear, but no other benefits.

Nonetheless, Mercedes also had another plan in mind, considering after Verstappen's pit stop, Qin Miao communicated with Frankie about the possibility of not pitting and completing the race.

The team agreed with Qin Miao's tactical choice.

Therefore, later in the race, after Verstappen caught up to Qin Miao, Qin Miao could help Hamilton defend against Verstappen to a certain extent.

Of course, there's also the possibility that Qin Miao could pull a DRS train behind him and directly bring home the championship himself.

However, this will depend on the driver's performance on the track.

By the end of the forty-sixth lap, having only taken three laps after exiting the pits, Hamilton reached the DRS zone behind Verstappen; on the same lap at the starting straight, Hamilton used his car's advantage to reduce the gap between them to 0.6 seconds.

Despite the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen at the same starting straight of the forty-seventh lap expanding to 0.8 seconds, and the attack ultimately only shrinking the gap to 0.3 seconds,

The time gap remained at 0.3 seconds when exiting T3 and entering the next DRS zone on the same lap.

Therefore, in this DRS zone, Hamilton had the capability to launch an attack and the opportunity to overtake Verstappen. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Verstappen was very aware too; seeing the gap between himself and Hamilton, he immediately chose to take the inside line before the brake point, braking late, using line preference to squeeze Hamilton off the track at T4.

Of course, the price was that he also went off together.

Nevertheless, this could be counted as Verstappen's signature defensive style.

Unlike the tussle with Qin Miao and Hamilton, which, despite being fierce, still left each other some room,

Verstappen seemingly wished Hamilton harm, after all, the memory of the 51G crash still lingered vividly.

Both the audience and commentators had become accustomed to this defensive style of Verstappen.

Due to being squeezed off the track by Verstappen, Hamilton took a wider line to return, affecting his speed, thus marking the failure of this attack.

And on the other side, Qin Miao just happened to pass a broadcast screen meant for the live audience, coincidentally witnessing this bout.

At that moment, Qin Miao was in a state where there were no slow cars ahead and no cars trailing behind.

Due to the need for tire preservation, he wasn't driving particularly fast, typically leaving some margin for his tires at each corner.

So Qin Miao was very relaxed, even having the leisure to watch the screen. Upon seeing this scene, he directly commented on the team radio: "Verstappen's defense is really a bit excessive. He can't always defend against Hamilton like that!"

Frankie was just watching the tussle between Hamilton and Verstappen because of Qin Miao entering cruise mode.

Upon hearing Qin Miao's comment, Frankie instantly responded: "How do you know? Focus on the race, stop looking around."

It's worth saying, professional track engineers know how—upon hearing Qin Miao's voice during the race, Frankie immediately snapped back from distraction.

"Alright."

Qin Miao shrugged, continuing his cruising.

But truth be told, Qin Miao was indeed happy to see these two fighting.

Because ever since they started battling, the gap that had constantly been shrinking between them and Qin Miao now began to widen, which is undoubtedly good news for Qin Miao.

However, after this offensive and defensive exchange, Hamilton didn't immediately start a second attack but began recharging his car.

Verstappen also regained his rhythm, running his own lap times.

The gap between Qin Miao and the two began to shrink again.

In the fiftieth lap, Hamilton regained DRS on Verstappen but didn't rush to attack, rather using DRS to gradually reduce the distance, waiting for the next opportunity to strike.

By the fifty-second lap, the gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao reached ten seconds, with nineteen laps remaining.

By the fifty-third lap, Hamilton was still in the DRS zone behind Verstappen, but Hamilton was still not at the distance sufficient for attacking Verstappen.

In the fifty-seventh lap, Verstappen was seven seconds behind Qin Miao.

If this pace continues, Verstappen reaching Qin Miao would be by the sixty-seventh lap.