How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 789 - 319: Slaughter (6K, Debt Repayment 2/2)

He also knew how important the current position was to Qin Miao.

However, as a track engineer, Frankie also knew he wasn't just a cheerleader for Qin Miao, so he reminded Qin Miao, "Verstappen still has your DRS, try to maintain your current position."

Frankie wasn't wrong; Verstappen did indeed have the DRS from Qin Miao's car at this time.

After all, before Qin Miao passed the DRS detection line, Verstappen realized he had neglected Qin Miao behind him and began accelerating his own car.

But because of that slowdown, by the time Qin Miao, Hamilton, and Verstappen all reached the start-finish straight, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him was still quite large, a full 1.2 seconds.

In the following race, despite Verstappen's all-out pursuit of Qin Miao and releasing as much ERS as possible, the time gap between them was still too large. Even with the help of DRS and ERS, Verstappen couldn't catch up to Qin Miao.

Before the braking point at T1, he could only close the gap to 0.3 seconds behind Qin Miao.

With that time gap, Qin Miao didn't even have to take the inside line to defend against Verstappen but instead took the normal racing line into the corner after braking late.

At this moment, Verstappen had no chance to attack Qin Miao, but he still tried to put pressure on Qin Miao by peeking inside, despite knowing Qin Miao's formidable defensive abilities, which this little pressure couldn't affect.

But as the saying goes, beating the kids on rainy days is just something to do when idle.

It's just that Verstappen overlooked one issue; he hadn't yet given back the position originally belonging to Hamilton.

Qin Miao initially thought that after overtaking Hamilton and Verstappen, the two of them would let go of their animosity, exchange positions, and start chasing him.

However, Qin Miao clearly underestimated the hostility between Hamilton and Verstappen toward each other. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Because when Qin Miao reached the exit of T23 on lap 38, he noticed Hamilton had obtained DRS from Verstappen.

The earlier position exchange was interrupted due to Qin Miao's sudden appearance, so this lap Verstappen still wanted to give back the position originally belonging to Hamilton.

After all, if he didn't return the position, Verstappen would face a 5-second penalty.

But Red Bull's strategy for exchanging positions hadn't changed due to Qin Miao's sudden interference.

So just before the DRS detection point at T27, when Verstappen arrived here, he still didn't give up the racing line but simply started slowing down.

Apparently, Verstappen still wanted Hamilton to be the first to reach that DRS detection point.

Even though Qin Miao was right in front of them, and doing so would definitely allow Qin Miao to pull further ahead.

Yet Verstappen still did just that.

And Hamilton seemed to have gotten carried away; he didn't want to be the first to hit that DRS detection point either. You slow down, then I will slow down too.

Then Qin Miao was somewhat perplexed to find that when he reached the braking point at T27 and routinely glanced at the rear-view mirror to check the exact positions of those two, he found they were still on the outer apex of T26.

Qin Miao's mind was full of question marks at this moment.

What? Aren't you two going to continue racing?

Actually, at this time, Verstappen's thinking was quite simple.

Currently, he was at the bottom of the three championship contenders in terms of points, and he was using medium tires in this race.

Verstappen wasn't Qin Miao; although his tire management skills were also top-notch, after being pushed by Hamilton for so long, Verstappen knew his tires were somewhat overused.

He indeed had confidence to finish the race on these medium tires, but he couldn't guarantee his speed in the later stages.

Combined with Qin Miao's tire management abilities and his set of hard tires, Verstappen temporarily lost any desire to make a move against Qin Miao.

Because he knew, even if he had the thought, he couldn't catch up to Qin Miao.

At least, in the remaining 11 laps, Verstappen didn't think he could find an opportunity to catch up to Qin Miao.