How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 813 - 328: Kids Don’t Know Any Better, They’re Just Messing Around

In today's race, his speed is just a bit slower than Lord's. Originally, he thought it's the last race anyway, so he'd try to score points if possible, and if not, beating his teammate Alonso would suffice.

When facing Qin Miao, O'Kang felt the same as other mid- and lower-tier drivers, with no inclination to resist. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

If Qin Miao caught up, he'd just defend a bit. Of course, it was just a try, and if Qin Miao was too fast, he'd let him pass; maintaining his own race pace was more important.

But suddenly, seeing Yuki Tsunoda slow down deliberately, letting him into his DRS zone, O'Kang understood Tsunoda's intent.

Even though seeing Tsunoda slow down triggered a thought to overtake him using DRS, with an external threat at hand, O'Kang knew what was more important and didn't attack Tsunoda actively.

Instead, he used this DRS train to defend against Qin Miao behind him.

Seeing this scene, Qin Miao twitched the corner of his mouth, didn't use the team radio, and cursed inside his helmet: "Damn it, did those two points for eighth place scare you both into using Soul Fusion Technique?"

But Qin Miao still had to continue the race, knowing this wasn't the time to complain.

On lap 5, Qin Miao caught up into the DRS range behind O'Kang.

But it wasn't until lap 9 that Qin Miao found an opportunity to overtake.

As Qin Miao approached T5, the time gap between him and O'Kang was down to 0.3 seconds.

Then Qin Miao ignored the turbulent flow behind O'Kang's car, staying glued to his rear as they entered T5, and after exiting the turn, used his soft tires to keep the time gap to O'Kang at 0.4 seconds.

Upon acceleration after the turn, as soon as he passed the DRS detection point, Qin Miao activated his car's DRS.

On the longest straight of Yas Marina Circuit, Qin Miao heavily latched onto the slipstream of O'Kang's car.

But O'Kang's defensive will was particularly strong; when Qin Miao prepared to overtake from the inside on the track, O'Kang changed lanes directly, denying Qin Miao the chance to overtake from the inside.

Qin Miao had no choice but to take the outside line.

And because O'Kang had Tsunoda's DRS, by the time Qin Miao moved to the outside and gradually accelerated to come side by side with O'Kang on the track.

O'Kang had also caught up with Tsunoda ahead of him. At this point, 2/3 of this long straight had been raced, and was approaching the braking point, while Qin Miao and O'Kang were merely side by side.

Despite Qin Miao having an absolute speed advantage, there was still Lord in front of O'Kang blocking him.

With Tsunoda ahead lacking DRS, the gap between him and O'Kang shrank to the point where Qin Miao couldn't fit in.

Moreover, O'Kang had no intention of overtaking on Tsunoda's inside line, while Tsunoda drove normally on the racing line.

This meant Qin Miao was effectively locked in by a Red Bull and an Alpine, and despite having a speed advantage, Qin Miao had no way to overtake, as they left no space on the track for him.

This is the annoying part about DRS trains.

Overtaking one car isn't enough; to get past a DRS train, you have to overtake both the car in front and the leader of the train.

Sometimes there are also issues with DRS trains illegally occupying the track.

Reaching here, Qin Miao realized there was a high chance this attempt to overtake would end in failure.

With abundant defensive experience, Qin Miao knew there was no room to squeeze through at this angle.

All Qin Miao could do now was try to continue pressuring O'Kang from the outside, hoping he'd brake late and take a defensive line, thus giving himself a chance to cross line.

But if O'Kang didn't go defensive and instead took a normal line into the turn, Qin Miao could only give up this attack and look for another opportunity.

Fortunately, at the braking point, Qin Miao on the outside had already surpassed half of O'Kang's car.

For his priority in the turn, O'Kang chose to brake late, and because he didn't manage the braking force well, his front-right tire smoked, but he quickly eased off the brake slightly, minimizing tire loss and smoothly going into the turn.

However, the locking up of the tires did make O'Kang go slightly wide.

This gave Qin Miao the opportunity to take the cross line.

So Qin Miao on the track took a wide angle into T6, and then sharply cut into the outside line of O'Kang.

But the stretch between T6 and T7 was still too short for Qin Miao to fully unleash the Mercedes' acceleration performance and overtake O'Kang in one turn, but reaching T7, Qin Miao was still side by side on the outside with O'Kang.

O'Kang repeated his strategy of late braking, while Qin Miao again took the cross line.

Afterward, they approached another long straight.

Seeing Qin Miao take the second cross line, O'Kang already guessed he might not hold off Qin Miao's attack.

So after exiting T7, reaching the DRS detection point after T7, O'Kang deliberately eased off the throttle.

He planned to use DRS to reclaim his position in the DRS zone between T7 and T9.

Qin Miao, however, had no such plans; even though with all the fighting between them in those two turns, Tsunoda had pulled away by more than 1.4 seconds.

But Qin Miao wasn't worried at all about losing DRS.