How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 776 - 316: Unexpected Yellow Flag

In the first timed sector, Verstappen immediately went purple, which is actually normal, considering that the first timed sector is the most winding section of the Jeddah Circuit, and the Red Bull car is famously fast in medium and high-speed corners.

Soon, Verstappen finished the second timed sector and went purple once again.

Verstappen's time in the first two timed sectors was already 0.3 seconds faster than Hamilton.

This made the Mercedes side a bit anxious, because if things continued like this, Verstappen had a great chance of ultimately winning pole position in this qualifying session.

But soon, the Mercedes team was relieved.

At the beginning of the third timed sector, Verstappen's pace was still quite good, just like in the first and second sectors, and his speed was very fast.

The three commentators from Five-Star Sports, seeing those two purple sectors, unanimously said, "There's no problem now. Verstappen's speed is too fast, at least 0.2 seconds quicker than Hamilton."

Just as they finished speaking, the broadcast footage switched to Verstappen at the last corner of the third timed sector, T27, the slowest corner on the entire track.

Then, we saw Verstappen's rear wheels slip after exiting the corner.

It might have been because the working temperature of the rear tires dropped, or it could have been due to other reasons. In any case, Verstappen, who had been very fast on this flying lap, made a mistake at this corner.

After exiting the corner, the rear wheels lost grip and fishtailed.

And the Jeddah Circuit has no runoff areas, the right shoulder right after exiting T27 is right up against the barriers.

So after Verstappen's car's right rear wheel went out of control, it slammed straight into the barrier of the track.

Although the collision wasn't severe, and the car didn't suffer any structural damage.

But Verstappen still ended up with a tire blowout on his right rear wheel.

We must understand that F1 is a sport where every second counts. This mistake would completely ruin the excellent times Verstappen had in the first two timed sectors of this lap.

Now, with the tire blowout, the time from this flying lap was immediately invalidated.

After a gasp, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports, although expressing regret for Verstappen, if you were watching in the broadcast room, you'd notice that the corners of their mouths were turned up at this moment.

The smile on their lips was like an AK, impossible to suppress. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Meanwhile, at Red Bull, who were full of hope, were staring in disbelief after seeing Verstappen crash. Horner sighed helplessly while Marco covered his face with both hands.

As for Mercedes, who were a bit nervous earlier, they let out a long sigh of relief after seeing Verstappen's crash, followed by a burst of laughter.

Even though the Mercedes team's pit area is right next to the Red Bull team's, the laughter could be heard by the Red Bull team staff next door.

But they didn't care at all, and in fact, it's fair to say that this laughter was meant for the team next door to hear.

Because of the Jeddah Circuit's characteristics, an accident on the track would 100% result in a yellow flag.

Not to mention that Verstappen had come to a stop on the track.

Therefore, the few drivers behind Verstappen who hadn't finished their final flying laps got unlucky, and their lap times were immediately invalidated.

With Verstappen's time canceled, naturally, the two Mercedes drivers secured the front row for tomorrow's race.

Hamilton will start from pole position, and Qin Miao is second.

So the starting order for tomorrow's race is as follows:

1: Hamilton

2: Qin Miao

3: Verstappen

4: Leclerc

5: Perez

6: Gasly

7: Norris

8: Tsunoda

9: O'Kang

10: Giovinazzi

Qin Miao, knowing that Verstappen withdrew due to the crash, also breathed a sigh of relief.

Despite the fact that from the qualifying session, Verstappen had shown that Red Bull indeed had some merits in terms of single-lap speed.

But based on practice session data, the Mercedes car had quite an advantage in long-distance racing.

So Qin Miao felt that tomorrow in the race, the only trouble he needed to face would be Hamilton.

After the race, Verstappen had to walk a bit towards the area, while Qin Miao and Hamilton had already pushed their cars from the pit to the track.

After a brief celebration, the post-race interviews began.

At this time, the post-race interviews were more for the warm-up for tomorrow's race, so the responses from the two Mercedes drivers were relatively bland.

During the post-race interview stage, the only one to look forward to was actually Verstappen's interview.

Verstappen is known for being a maverick in interviews.

So, when Verstappen was being interviewed, he didn't reveal much, mainly saying that he didn't hit the apex at T27, and then for some reason, the left front wheel locked up.

But at that time, Verstappen didn't want to waste the time advantage he had gained in the first and second timed sectors, so after the corner, Verstappen didn't give up on this lap and intended to continue accelerating.

Then, as the spectators saw, Verstappen lost control of the car after accelerating, the right rear wheel hit the wall, and the car finally stopped on the track, canceling the last flying lap.

No matter what, this mistake by Verstappen was good news for everyone at Mercedes.