How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 758 - 311: Furious Overtake on Verstappen

Right now, Qin Miao is quite confident about whether he can surpass Verstappen.

Just the fact that Qin Miao's qualifying speed was faster than Verstappen during yesterday's qualifying stage is enough to give Qin Miao plenty of confidence.

Verstappen naturally saw Qin Miao appearing in his rearview mirror.

However, Verstappen didn't feel nervous; at this moment, he only felt a sense of powerlessness.

A sense of powerlessness from his car's performance being inferior to his opponent's.

From the last few races of this season, it is not hard to see that Mercedes has had new upgrades recently. On such a track dominated by medium and high-speed turns, Mercedes's speed both in corners and on straights is exceptionally fast.

Not only has Hamilton opened an insurmountable distance ahead of him, but Qin Miao has also caught up from behind.

It's important to note that at the beginning of the season, Qin Miao could only rely on his somewhat supermodel defense ability to cause Verstappen some trouble on the way to attacking Hamilton. Once he surpassed Qin Miao, the stage was set for Verstappen and Hamilton.

Who would have thought that before the season was over, Qin Miao now has the ability to challenge and threaten Verstappen's position.

That's why Verstappen felt a strong sense of powerlessness.

Verstappen could only marvel that newcomers are monsters.

In the DRS zone on lap 14, Qin Miao naturally couldn't pose any substantial threat to Verstappen.

After all, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was still quite significant, so up until the braking point of T1 with the DRS activated, Qin Miao didn't have the opportunity to attack, merely popping out on the inside of the track to appear in Verstappen's rearview mirror and apply pressure.

In the subsequent continuous corners, Qin Miao began to slowly but steadily reduce the distance to Verstappen by leveraging the performance of Mercedes in this race.

The car adaptability of Mercedes to this track was excellent in this race; in these high-speed continuous turns, they were faster than the Red Bull, which excelled in medium to low-speed turns.

But after all, Verstappen is Verstappen, and under such adverse conditions, he only allowed Qin Miao to reduce the time gap by 0.2 seconds.

At the end of lap 14, after exiting T16, the time gap between them was only 0.5 seconds.

Whether Qin Miao's attack can succeed under this time gap remains a question mark.

But Qin Miao didn't care about the success rate of his attack under this time gap and began full ERS deployment right after the corner exit.

Meanwhile, Verstappen started weaving left and right after exiting the corner.

Qin Miao followed closely behind Verstappen, weaving together with him to maximize the slipstream provided by Verstappen.

But during Verstappen's weaving, Qin Miao's car inevitably ran into the turbulent air left by Verstappen's car.

As a result, Qin Miao's closing speed was slower than he anticipated.

It wasn't until crossing the finish line of lap 14 and entering lap 15 that Qin Miao managed to pop out on the outside of Verstappen.

Verstappen's defense, especially against his rivals for the championship title this season, Hamilton and Qin Miao, was at full intensity.

Thus, when Qin Miao popped out on Verstappen's outside, Verstappen immediately turned left, pushing Qin Miao's line.

Of course, Qin Miao couldn't engage in a direct confrontation with Verstappen at this time, so he moved left to make some room on the track and chose to evade.

However, Verstappen was somewhat pushing his luck; even when Qin Miao's left rear wheel was pressed against the edge white line of the track, Verstappen still continued to squeeze Qin Miao.

Having no choice, Qin Miao had to continue giving way.

Because at this point, Verstappen's left front wheel was locked ahead of Qin Miao's front wing. If an accident occurred at this moment and he collided with Verstappen, it would most likely be Qin Miao who suffered.

Even if he wasn't seriously damaged, it could very likely end in a scenario where both were hurt, ultimately benefiting Hamilton.

Seeing that Qin Miao's left rear wheel was already pressed to the point of kicking up dirt from the grass outside the track, Verstappen knew he couldn't go too far and returned to the normal racing line.

Due to Verstappen's squeezing, Qin Miao's attack naturally ended in failure.

After entering T1 and exiting the corner, Qin Miao naturally began venting in the team radio.

"What the hell is Verstappen thinking? Does he even know how to drive? If he doesn't know how to drive, he can go home and take care of kids!"

"Stay focused," Frankie consoled. "The race is still long, our speed is faster than Verstappen's, and we still have a chance."

Qin Miao exhaled deeply and, after adjusting his mindset, said, "Received."

But just as Qin Miao had finished responding, Toto's voice came in, "Don't worry, Qin Miao, we will report this to the stewards."

"Well, let's hope for a good outcome," Qin Miao replied.

"Rest assured, trust us."

...

Back on track, Qin Miao fell 1.2 seconds behind Verstappen.

Fortunately, this loss wasn't too severe, and Qin Miao still had the possibility of catching up.

On lap 15, Qin Miao appeared 0.7 seconds behind Verstappen in the same position.

However, due to the release in the previous lap, Qin Miao's ERS energy was somewhat insufficient this lap.

So Qin Miao could only use the DRS to further shorten the time gap with Verstappen.