How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 743 - 306: Eight Crowns!
But Hamilton seized this tiny, insignificant flaw in Qin Miao's driving, utilizing the slipstream and the subsequent DRS, ultimately overtaking Qin Miao on the outside line of the main straight.
After witnessing this scene, the crowd at the venue erupted into frenzied cheers, just like when Hamilton overtook Verstappen.
Watching the departing Hamilton, Qin Miao sighed helplessly, started to decelerate to cool down the car, and began recharging the car as well.
Despite there being two laps left to the end of the race, Verstappen had closed the gap to just two seconds behind Qin Miao while Qin Miao and Hamilton were battling.
Another piece of bad news was that Qin Miao's tires had already gone over the cliff, and the tire grip was beginning to drop rapidly. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Without any surprises, whether Qin Miao can defend against Verstappen's attack in these last two laps would decide if Qin Miao can maintain his second place and secure the team championship.
But Verstappen was also at a loss for words.
Red Bull faced quite a few issues in this race. Compared to Mercedes, Red Bull's biggest problem was in their setup.
Moreover, Red Bull had invested more of their development budget into the ground-effect cars for next season, so unlike Mercedes, they didn't bring a significant upgrade that was crucial for vehicle performance improvement in this race.
Therefore, it was clear that Verstappen's speed was somewhat slow.
Also, after hearing Hamilton discussing the two-stop strategy with his track engineer, the team called Verstappen back to the pits earlier, meaning Verstappen's tires had done three more laps than Hamilton's.
Verstappen had also battled with Hamilton on the track for so many laps, so by now, Verstappen's tires couldn't hold up anymore.
Taking advantage of the time when Qin Miao and Hamilton were fighting, closing the gap to within two seconds behind was about the limit of what Verstappen could do.
Therefore, in the last two laps, all Verstappen could do was follow within 1.5 seconds behind Qin Miao, applying pressure.
Attempting to force Qin Miao into making mistakes.
But Qin Miao ultimately withstood the pressure from Verstappen, steadily controlling his car, completing the last two laps.
In the end, amidst the carnival of the Brazilian audience, the celebration of the Mercedes team, and the cheers of the Mercedes fans, the Brazilian Grand Prix came to an end.
Hamilton and Qin Miao crossed the line one after the other, bringing it home in first and second places.
A yellow and red board with a "P" on it extended from the barrier of the Mercedes team's command post.
It read, Hamilton P1, Qin Miao P2.
This act carried a bit of a boastful tone—see, this is Mercedes! These are the Mercedes drivers!
After Hamilton and Qin Miao crossed the finish line, Mercedes secured the team championship ahead of the rest of the season, marking the eighth team championship for Mercedes, tying McLaren's record of eight titles.
At the same time, this was also the second time since 2018 that Mercedes clinched the team championship early at the Brazilian GP.
All of this was thanks to the outstanding performance of rookie driver Qin Miao this season, comparable to that of a number one driver.
"Lewis, we are the team world champions! That's it! Well done! You drove an incredible race!" After crossing the line, amid fireworks on both sides of the track, Hamilton's track engineer praised him over the team radio.
"Hahaha! Let's gooooo! Thank you all, without your efforts, we couldn't have achieved such a great accomplishment. This championship belongs to everyone at Mercedes!"
On the other side, Frankie was the first to congratulate Qin Miao: "Qin Miao! We are the champions! Champions! We're the fucking champions! You did a great job in this race! You did so fucking well!"
However, compared to Hamilton's battle-hardened track engineer, Frankie, who joined F1 with Qin Miao, was clearly so excited that he was almost incoherent.
