How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 756 - 310: Head-On Showdown

In any case, the FIA's penalty decision has already been made, and this penalty is clearly outlined in the F1 racing regulations, so there will be no objections to the punishment of these two drivers.

So tomorrow in the main race, the starting grid is as follows:

1: Hamilton

2: Gasly

3: Alonso

4: Norris

5: Sainz

6: Qin Miao

7: Verstappen

8: Tsunoda

9: O'Kang

10: Vettel

...

Meanwhile, when Hamilton found out that both Qin Miao and Verstappen were penalized, his smirk was even harder to suppress than AK's.

If there weren't other people around him at the time, Hamilton might have laughed out loud on the spot.

But fortunately, he managed to hold it back in the end.

However, after getting this news, Hamilton visibly relaxed, and his mood improved significantly.

He was walking with a spring in his step, and even when he saw his critics in the paddock, he had a smile on his face.

After all pre-race activities ended, the race was about to begin.

Under the Qatari sunset, Qin Miao and Barber walked together onto the brightly lit track, then arrived in front of their respective cars.

Suited up, Qin Miao got into his car.

After some adjustments, the staff withdrew.

The warm-up lap naturally started.

During this process, Qin Miao, as usual, overheated his tires, although not as much as when starting from the front row.

Soon, the warm-up lap ended. As Hamilton finally stopped in his position, the drivers behind also took their places one by one.

It's worth mentioning that before Qin Miao parked his car, he positioned it at an angle aligned with the racing line on the track.

Qin Miao knew that the dirty side of the track would lack grip, so he wanted to move towards the racing line after the start, taking the cleaner part of the track.

However, moving towards the racing line after a normal start would inevitably lose tire traction during this maneuver.

Therefore, Qin Miao set the angle in advance during the preparation phase so that he wouldn't need to waste too much traction on steering during the start.

As Mazepin once again finally parked his car.

Five red lights ignited and then went out.

The race begins!

Amidst the roar of F1 engines, Hamilton took the lead with an excellent start.

After this start, Hamilton quickly opened up the gap with the drivers behind.

Gasly, who started second, was a bit slow to react, while Alonso behind Hamilton had an equally stunning start.

Hamilton and Alonso's cars almost started simultaneously.

As a result, Alonso, who was faster after the start, was getting ready to make a move on Gasly.

However, Gasly did not give Alonso the inside line.

Although Alonso had an advantage, it wasn't enough to move directly from third to second, so when they reached T1, to avoid accidents, Alonso eased off the throttle a bit and let Gasly keep his position.

After the start and T1, the top three drivers' positions remained unchanged.

In contrast, on Qin Miao's side,

the starts of Verstappen and Qin Miao were remarkably impressive, comparable to Hamilton's.

In comparison, Sainz, who was in fifth, started as if he was half a beat slow.

However, after the start, Verstappen found himself in a slightly awkward situation.

His starting speed was similar to Qin Miao's, but both were faster than Sainz. As Qin Miao headed directly towards the racing line after the start, Verstappen found that when he exited behind Sainz on the outside line, instead of seeing a gap, he was looking at the rear of Qin Miao's car.

Reluctantly, Verstappen had to give up the relatively better track conditions in the middle and, after catching some slipstream from Qin Miao's car, moved to the outside line.

In the process, a McLaren with an orange livery appeared slowly on Qin Miao's right side.

It was clear that Norris, during the starting phase, was behind both Qin Miao and Sainz.

Then, with Verstappen on the outside line, the first corner of Lusail International Circuit's first F1 Grand Prix saw an image of four cars entering the corner side by side simultaneously.

In the cornering phase, Sainz, who was on the outermost side of the track, was sure to take a big hit.

Next was Qin Miao, followed by Norris and Verstappen.

While exiting the corner, the four were still in a parallel state, but once they started accelerating out of the corner, Qin Miao squeezed out Sainz, while Norris squeezed Qin Miao's exit line.

Reluctantly, Qin Miao had to let Norris pass him.

After all, Qin Miao didn't have the racing line rights at the moment.

Unlike these three on the left who were in extremely dangerous positions trying to attack and defend against each other, Verstappen didn't directly participate in this waltz of sharp edges.

He was always on the outside line, and after braking, he hugged the curb on the inside line of T1 as he exited the corner.

Due to the skirmish among the other drivers, Verstappen, at this point, took a line that wasn't the best for exiting the corner.

Yet, even on such a line, Verstappen lost almost no speed after exiting the corner.

In fact, because he didn't have to worry about the positions of other drivers, Verstappen had plenty of space to accelerate after exiting the corner.