How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 820 - 331: Dust Settles

Now, Qin Miao only needs to maintain this position to finish the race, and he can mark the end of his first season in his career with perfection.

It is worth mentioning that after reaching 3rd place, because there are no other drivers obstructing him, Qin Miao's speed has gradually increased!

After two laps, the original 25-second gap between him and Verstappen has become 24.3 seconds. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Although Qin Miao's chasing speed is slow, even if he continues at this pace, he will not be able to catch up to within 10 seconds behind Verstappen before the race ends.

But at least it shows that compared to Verstappen, Qin Miao still has a speed advantage. Moreover, as Qin Miao gets faster and faster, the time gap between him and Perez behind him will gradually widen. Then Qin Miao will have enough margin for error, allowing him to take the final step more steadily towards the championship podium.

Just as the race entered a calm period and everyone thought it would end in a cruise, an unforeseen incident occurred on the track.

When the broadcast camera switched over, it could be seen that yet another Alfa Romeo was slowing down on the track.

At this time, Kimi from Alfa Romeo had already finished his last F1 Grand Prix race of his career, so the only possible driver of this car was the other Alfa Romeo driver: Giovinazzi.

And Giovinazzi parked his car on the exit line of turn 9 because there is a Matthew entrance right next to that spot.

However, this is precisely the exit of turn 9, where basically if someone makes a mistake at the apex of turn 9, the car will slide.

Then that out-of-control car will surely crash into Giovinazzi's car.

Therefore, after brief consideration and judgment, the race officials deployed the virtual safety car.

And at this point, because the final results among Hamilton, Verstappen, and Qin Miao are already determined, the somewhat monotonous race became filled with uncertainty again.

In the following time, spectators and commentators speculated whether Verstappen would choose to pit, because at this time Qin Miao and Hamilton had both reached their most comfortable positions, while Verstappen was stuck in no man's land, with Hamilton having secured victory in this race's grand prix, and Qin Miao taking the season's drivers' championship.

And he has nothing.

As the saying goes, those without fear tread solid ground, only Verstappen can make changes in moments like this to disrupt the field, create confusion, and gain benefits.

So after Hamilton passed the pit entry, Verstappen decisively chose to pit for a tire change.

Because it was during the virtual safety car period, Verstappen not only got a new set of hard tires for this pit stop but also saved 9 seconds...if Hamilton and Qin Miao were to pit...

For Qin Miao, after Verstappen entered the pit, Qin Miao smoothly moved up to second place. Even due to the virtual safety car, Qin Miao rapidly shortened the time gap between him and Hamilton ahead.

When the virtual safety car ended, the gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton shrunk from 30 seconds to 11 seconds.

Hamilton suffered a huge loss.

First, Verstappen pitted early and gained a new set of tires, saving 9 seconds of pit stop time.

Now his teammate is right behind him, all the advantages Hamilton built up in the early stages of the race have almost been wiped out by these unexpected track incidents.

Of course, Hamilton also received good news, that is his teammate Qin Miao is behind him, and judging by Qin Miao's tire-saving and long-distance capability, if no more incidents like the safety car or a red flag occur, Qin Miao should complete the entire race on this set of hard tires.

So Hamilton believes that Qin Miao is very likely to help him block Verstappen behind.

And indeed, that is the case.

In lap 40, Verstappen caught up to the rear of Qin Miao.

Although Verstappen had the advantage of tires at this time, Red Bull despairingly discovered that Verstappen could only follow behind Qin Miao.

His speed was insufficient to launch an attack on Qin Miao, and maintaining close proximity to Qin Miao was only possible because Verstappen's tires were newer than Qin Miao's. Otherwise, Verstappen would only watch Qin Miao pull farther and farther away.

At this moment, Red Bull realized that, starting at some unknown point, Qin Miao had already caught up and even surpassed Verstappen in terms of speed over long distances and other abilities.

But he has only been in F1 for one year!

Afterwards, the situation on the track stabilized again.

Qin Miao and Verstappen continued to chase down Hamilton ahead, but due to Qin Miao's pace, this pursuit was not fast.

Verstappen found no opportunity to attack Qin Miao. His last-gasp effort on the straight and late braking seemed invisible to Qin Miao, completely unaffected by Verstappen, maintaining his race condition.

If no incidents occur, the race might be directly completed in this state.