Chapter 1069: Chapter 409: Ferrari: My Luck Has Turned?

Such a loss could cost more than one second due to a mistake.

Therefore, this maneuver isn’t cost-effective, and even with Qin Miao’s strong physical fitness, he only dares to play like this in the first five or six laps of the race when his stamina is at its peak.

In the latter stages of the race, when Qin Miao’s physical strength starts to wane, he races normally.

But nonetheless, amidst Sainz’s confusion, the two cars racing side by side from T1 to T3 finally decided the winner.

Confused, Sainz was squeezed off the track by Qin Miao at T3. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The curb at T3 is much higher than at T1.

As a result, when Sainz rushed off the track again, the wooden board at the bottom of the car scrapped hard against the yellow curb of the track, sparking a flurry of sparks.

Sainz wasn’t worried that this would cause damage to the car’s floor.

In the era of ground effect, the floorboards of all teams’ cars are much higher than they appear.

So even when driving over a high curb, the only part likely to get damaged is the wooden board beneath the car’s floor, not the floor itself.

Of course, this doesn’t include any manhole covers sucked up by the car’s great floor suction.

But unlike T1, there is no escape route on the outside of T3.

Thus, when Sainz returned to the track, he didn’t have enough space to accelerate because the boundary between the paint on the outside of T3 and the track is grass.

So when Sainz returned to the track, he ended up behind Qin Miao.

"Qin Miao defended against Sainz very seriously this time!" At Five-Star Sports, after overtaking Sainz and successfully stabilizing his third position, moving into the second lap, the three commentators at Five-Star Sports finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Indeed, Qin Miao’s start today was as good as ever. I watched his sprint qualifying start and entire race yesterday, and there wasn’t anything spectacular. I thought being at Red Bull’s home circuit, some off-track factors might have affected Qin Miao’s mindset.

Looking at it now, I was worrying unnecessarily. I’ve never seen Qin Miao’s condition be affected by off-track factors in all the time I’ve been in the paddock.

Qin Miao probably just wanted to avoid any accidents during the sprint qualifying, so he ran more steadily," Xia said.

Today, Fei had a last-minute issue and couldn’t make it, so Xia was filling in. The other two commentators remained unchanged.

"But Qin Miao’s two defenses against Sainz were very risky; he pushed Sainz off twice," Zhou Haoran said.

"How is that risky?" Bing explained, "Both times when Qin Miao entered the corner, he had control of the racing line. Sainz being pushed out is on Sainz, not Qin Miao."

Zhou Haoran nodded, "According to the FIA track regulations, that’s correct. I’m talking about how closely Qin Miao and Sainz were during their tussle.

I noticed both times Qin Miao forced Sainz off the track, their car wheels were really close. In such a situation, even a small mistake could trigger a serious track accident."

...

The commentators concluded their discussion on Qin Miao’s overtaking maneuver here.

On the track, after overtaking Sainz, Qin Miao quickly extended the time gap from Sainz using the advantage of his soft tires.

Furthermore, after overtaking Sainz, Qin Miao’s momentum remained strong, and he began to close the time gap with Leclerc ahead.

Meanwhile, although Sainz wanted to reclaim his position, he felt truly helpless, and at this moment, Perez behind also started to target Sainz.

The time gap between the two was down to 0.4 seconds, and entering the DRS zone with such a gap, Perez attacking and overtaking Sainz would not be too difficult.

In the fourth lap, after DRS opened, Qin Miao finally caught up with Leclerc.

However, since Leclerc’s speed wasn’t slow in this race, Qin Miao merely managed to barely get within the DRS zone behind Leclerc.

Although Qin Miao easily reached this position, Leclerc ahead of him had Verstappen’s DRS assistance, making it hard for Qin Miao to overtake even with soft tires.

And crucially, Qin Miao was using soft tires. While Qin Miao’s soft tire durability could match other drivers’ medium tires, that was under light fuel conditions.

Now the race just started, and the car’s fuel tank is almost full, so the durability of Qin Miao’s soft tires won’t last long.

According to the team’s strategy group estimate, Qin Miao’s soft tires could only last about 12 laps on the track.

After 12 laps, Qin Miao’s soft tires would reach the point of degradation, significantly slowing down.

So Qin Miao doesn’t have much time.

Thus, Qin Miao disregarded his personal friendship and other considerations with Leclerc, skillfully throwing everything at Leclerc.

He closely followed behind Leclerc while trying to pressure him at every potential overtaking point.

Leclerc is quite familiar with Qin Miao, but he also understands that on the track, Qin Miao wouldn’t care about personal friendship or how good or bad their relationship is.

Thus, his stress level is quite high.

As high as 29%.

And mind you, the race just started.

However, just as Qin Miao was preparing to step up his efforts, Frankie’s routine report came through: "Qin Miao, you’re currently third, 0.7 seconds behind Leclerc ahead, 1.9 seconds behind Verstappen, and 2.1 seconds behind Sainz. Good job, keep it up."