Chapter 1093: Chapter 416: Everyone Has Their Good Days (Part 2)

The good news is that despite everything, Zhou Guanyu still beat his teammate Bottas.

It’s as if Bottas is destined to be restrained by the Chinese.

When Qin Miao first joined F1, he got the Mercedes seat by stepping over Bottas.

Now, after a season, Bottas has regained a driver’s seat, and Bottas’s speed is still there, not wasted by a year off.

You can see 77 really wants to get back in the car.

However, once Zhou Guanyu gradually adapted to the rhythm of F1 and began to absorb F1-related racing knowledge like a sponge, Zhou Guanyu’s growth rate was equally astounding.

In the recent races, Zhou Guanyu has consistently outperformed his teammate Bottas.

The only thing disappointing for domestic racing fans is that Zhou Guanyu’s growth has been slow. If Zhou Guanyu’s growth speed were a bit faster, and if Alfa Romeo didn’t mess around, Zhou Guanyu could definitely be consistently ahead of his teammate Bottas on the driver standings.

By then, both Chinese drivers would be leading their teammates in the standings, and just thinking about it is exciting.

Besides, this is not unfounded, it is very likely to be achieved.

Just that there are no what-ifs in this world.

Q3 started.

Hamilton and Qin Miao began slipstreaming on the track.

After all, the straight on this track is very long, and as a result, the slipstreaming effect on this track is particularly strong.

Compared to other teams, the two Mercedes drivers clearly have enough experience in slipstreaming.

Since the Monaco Grand Prix, when Hamilton helped Qin Miao slipstream, they have specifically practiced slipstreaming on tracks where slipstreaming is better.

The two drivers had slipstreamed for each other before. Compared to drivers from other teams, the Mercedes drivers have a lot less psychological burden when slipstreaming for each other, and they are more composed.

After all, camaraderie is something you build by helping each other.

The first flying lap of Q3, Qin Miao helped Hamilton with a slipstream.

The reason for choosing Qin Miao to lead is no other reason; the threshold for mentality is high for the two Mercedes drivers, to put it simply, they have big hearts.

Hamilton’s mentality has been cultivated over many years of racing.

And Qin Miao was born with a big heart. Although he sometimes gets emotional on the track, his driving style has never changed, always steady. Throughout his F1 career, he has never made a mistake because of excessive nervousness.

The F2 incident doesn’t count.

On the track, besides Mercedes, the two from Ferrari were also slipstreaming for their teammates.

However, the slipstreaming of the two teams is not quite the same.

In this race, Sainz, although entering Q3, replaced an engine beyond the rule-limited number, so even if he got pole in the qualifying, Sainz would be penalized to start from the back in the race.

So after entering Q3, Sainz didn’t return to the team pit to rest; instead, he spent the entire Q3 slipstreaming for Leclerc on the track.

Did it three times in total.

While Qin Miao and Hamilton only slipstreamed for each other once.

Compared to Qin Miao and Hamilton, Leclerc had more room for trial and error and performed quite well in this qualifying.

In the final lap before the Q3 clock stopped, Leclerc achieved pole position with a time of 1:30.872.

Leclerc’s time was 0.3 seconds faster than Verstappen’s.

Leclerc shouted excitedly on the team TR for securing pole: "Let’s gooooooo!"

Ferrari doing it this way indeed had no psychological burden because Sainz’s starting position tomorrow was already determined, regardless of whether he helped Leclerc slipstream or not.

And for Mercedes, it was normal for the two drivers to help each other slipstream due to their harmonious relationship and previous mutual slipstreaming experiences on different tracks.

However, this wasn’t the case for Red Bull. On the one hand, due to external pressure, particularly the pressure brought by Mercedes to Red Bull, the point difference between the two teams was less than ten. Sacrificing Perez’s qualifying could mean Mercedes eventually overtaking Red Bull in the team’s standings before the summer break.

Furthermore, Red Bull needed to consider Perez’s feelings. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Even though Perez was undoubtedly the second driver, he had quite a long contract. If they sacrificed Perez’s interests for Verstappen’s sake now, Perez might keep it in mind, and if in a crucial situation, Perez slacked off, Red Bull’s loss could be more than just a pole position.

But despite this, Red Bull’s cars still had some racing performance advantages over Mercedes’s internal chaos. So in the qualifying, even though Red Bull missed out on first, they still brought it home with a second and third.

Qin Miao was quite satisfied with his performance today in qualifying, but unfortunately, today Hamilton seemed to be on something, with a terrifyingly fast single-lap time of 1:31.435.

Hamilton’s single-lap speed was just 0.1 seconds slower than third-place Perez.

Qin Miao’s time was 1:31.566.

0.2 seconds slower than his teammate and more than 0.3 seconds slower than Perez.

Many might think today’s race was a result of Qin Miao underperforming at first glance.

After all, Qin Miao didn’t even beat his teammate in the qualifying today.

But Qin Miao knew in his heart that he was performing normally today, and he might say that he performed quite well today.

But unfortunately, his teammate Hamilton clearly performed better than him.

The final qualifying results were as follows:

1: Leclerc

2: Verstappen

3: Perez

4: Hamilton

5: Qin Miao

6: Norris

7: Alonso

8: Tsunoda

9: Sainz

10: Magelsen

The reason Magelsen appeared behind Sainz, who had his Q3 results directly canceled, is that Magelsen also replaced his car’s engine during this race, similar to Sainz.

Moreover, in the Q2 phase, Magelsen’s Q2 advancement result wasn’t as good as Sainz’s, so Magelsen started behind Sainz.

Thus, even though both Ferrari engine drivers had their qualifying results canceled, the treatment for those with canceled results varied.

After the race, Qin Miao’s work was almost done.

He attended a post-race interview. The reporter interviewing Qin Miao had a good relationship with the Mercedes team and didn’t ask any awkward questions.

A Saturday that Qin Miao didn’t find particularly pleasant ended just like that.

Sunday, race day.

Strictly speaking, Monaco is actually within France.

Although Monaco was previously Italian territory, Monaco later became independent.

Now, Monaco entrusts France with handling diplomatic and international affairs full-time.

So, in a certain sense, Monaco is actually a part of France, except it has nominally independent sovereignty.

Therefore, today’s French Grand Prix also counts as a home race for Leclerc from Ferrari. However, compared to Gasly and O’Kang, Leclerc’s treatment is slightly inferior.

But due to the current performance of the Alpine cars, most French viewers still prefer to support Leclerc.

In yesterday’s qualifying, Leclerc secured pole position over Verstappen; the overwhelming cheers from the French audience on site during the post-race interview were the best proof.

After the pre-race driver parade ended, the main race was about to start.

ps. Daddies, it’s the end of the month, please vote for your son.