How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 818 - 330: The Legend Bows Out

After passing the combination of T6 and T7 turns, Perez was visibly left behind by Hamilton.

Before the braking point at T9, Perez voluntarily slowed down and gave his position to Verstappen, allowing Verstappen to chase the Hamilton ahead.

When Verstappen once again caught up to the back of Hamilton, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen had shrunk to just 1.3 seconds. It could be said that both drivers were back on the same starting line.

On the same lap, Perez, whose tires were in a state of exhaustion, opted for a pit stop to change tires. His task in this race was not only to help Verstappen defend against Hamilton, but also to return to try and disrupt Qin Miao's chase.

Although at this point blocking Qin Miao seemed meaningless, he had to give it a try. What if a miracle happened, and Qin Miao made an unexpected mistake while defending against Perez?

The good news was that at this time, Qin Miao had not yet pitted, so if Perez pitted early at this point, he would have ample time to recharge his car's battery, waiting for an opportunity when Qin Miao pits and falls behind him.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao continued persistently on the track, still 6 seconds behind Verstappen and this time gap was expanding at a rate of 0.3 seconds per lap.

However, Qin Miao was not anxious at all because he was faster than Alonso, Gasly, and the others behind him.

His main goal in this race wasn't to win the championship but to secure a top-three finish.

So Qin Miao prepared to run his normal race pace. As long as he kept his overall speed faster than Perez, Qin Miao would not encounter any major threats in this race.

On the other hand, Verstappen on the track gradually lost the time advantage that Perez had secured for him.

Hamilton was gradually pulling away from Verstappen behind him at a rate of 0.4 seconds per lap.

There was no way around it; the gap in car performance was not something that could be easily bridged by the efforts of a second driver.

By the time the race reached the 23rd lap, the time gap between Hamilton and Verstappen had increased to 2.3 seconds.

At this pace, Hamilton might extend his lead over Verstappen to about 10 seconds.

Meanwhile, the sky over the track was gradually darkening, and all the lights on the track were turned on, illuminating the track as bright as day, which would otherwise have been pitch black.

On the 25th lap, the set of soft tires on Qin Miao's car, which had been run for 27 laps, finally reached the end of its life. Shortly after Hamilton crossed the finish line of lap 25, Qin Miao entered the pit lane.

In fact, normally Qin Miao could swap to a set of medium tires and complete the race. However, the team took into account the dropping track temperature as the race progressed.

To further mitigate the risks posed by tire heating issues, the team decided to fit Qin Miao with a set of hard tires.

The team's idea was simple: consistency should be the key word for Qin Miao in this race.

Faced with the team's choice, Qin Miao didn't object, trusting in the team strategy group's judgment.

Normal pit stop tire change completed, with a tire change time of 2.4 seconds, a result that's moderate for Mercedes.

After the pit stop, Qin Miao fell to a position 3 seconds behind Perez.

This was inevitable because Perez had been ahead of Qin Miao before the pit stop. Even after the final mission of his worn-out soft tires ended, Qin Miao's pace was still faster than Perez's new hard tires, though not by much.

Once the race reached this point, basically all the drivers had completed one pit stop. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

By now, the finishing positions of the drivers were more or less determined.

Qin Miao was temporarily in fourth, and between him and Hamilton's shattered dream of an eighth title was only Perez.

As for Verstappen, he was already at ease, thinking mainly about trying for a win in the final race.

Of course, that was just a lighthearted thought. Verstappen still had the possibility of a comeback, such as Qin Miao getting into an accident or having a tire blowout.

So, Perez had to fiercely defend against Qin Miao regardless, even if it was just for that 1% chance.

Even if doing so would help Hamilton, it was necessary.

Red Bull couldn't afford to give up just because of fear.

However, this time when Perez defended against Qin Miao, he didn't practically abandon all his time advantage like he did when defending against Hamilton, slowing down recklessly to block the driver behind.

Perez was just running the race normally, waiting for Qin Miao to gradually catch up to him.

On the 27th lap, the legendary driver and the last Ferrari driver's champion, Kimi, crashed on the track, breaking his car's front wing with clear damage to the right front wheel's suspension and brake.

Fortunately, Kimi was still able to drive his car at this point.

But after returning to the pit lane, the team mechanics discovered that Kimi's car suspension was broken, making it impossible to repair during the race. Therefore, Kimi's last race of his career ended with this crash retirement.

Witnessing this scene, many veteran fans at the venue couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness and melancholy.