Chapter 1094: Chapter 417: An Expected Surprise

For today’s race, Pirelli provided the C4-C3 compound, consisting of three medium-hardness tires.

Meanwhile, the ambient temperature at the track is 31 degrees Celsius, and the track temperature is 60 degrees Celsius.

Strictly speaking, today’s track temperature is a bit too high, making tire temperature control not an easy task for the drivers.

The camera shifts focus, and the scene is now on the track.

Like other drivers, Qin Miao is starting on medium tires.

During practice sessions, the normal lap count for drivers on this track was only about 9 laps.

This durability is really a bit too little for a 53-lap race, and even Qin Miao can only manage 13 laps on soft tires with a light fuel load. If he conserves the tires a bit, a set could last about 17 laps for Qin Miao.

The team actually wants Qin Miao to continue racing with tire differentiation.

However, starting on hard tires, even if Qin Miao gives it his all, his lap times won’t be faster than conserving on medium tires.

But the hard tires can go 50 laps without significant degradation on the track.

Therefore, using hard tires at the start would be somewhat wasteful for Qin Miao.

After some meetings, the strategy team decided on a one-stop yellow-red strategy for Qin Miao, but with medium tires, he needs to last at least 36 laps on track.

The longer he lasts, the more durability the soft tires will have once they are fitted.

This is basically Qin Miao’s comfort zone, so the team has minimal concerns.

Soon, the formation lap begins.

Honestly, during the formation lap, Qin Miao saw his teammate Hamilton’s car in front of him, and he was momentarily unaccustomed.

After all, this season, the times Hamilton has led him were very few.

Now Qin Miao hopes that Hamilton’s performance in the race won’t be as phenomenal as it was in qualifying.

Soon, the formation lap ends, and all drivers park their cars in their respective positions.

Qin Miao calms his mind, no longer thinking about things unrelated to the race.

Soon, five red lights illuminate, then go out, and the race begins.

Leclerc had a very good start in today’s race, firmly holding onto his starting position.

Verstappen also had a decent start today, but compared to Leclerc, it seemed like Verstappen made a mistake at the start.

Meanwhile, Perez’s start wasn’t fast, but Hamilton and Qin Miao, behind him, started particularly well.

Before entering T1, Leclerc and Verstappen held their positions, but Perez lost third place to Hamilton, who had a much quicker start.

Qin Miao’s start was actually faster than Perez’s, and even slightly faster than Hamilton’s. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

However, due to the limited length of the straight after the start and being blocked by his teammate Hamilton and Perez at the corner entry, Qin Miao did not achieve a better position and remained fifth after the start.

After a few corners, the cars settled, and Leclerc began to slowly increase the time gap between himself and Verstappen behind him, while Verstappen rapidly increased the gap with Hamilton.

Before the DRS opened, Qin Miao could only barely keep up with Perez in front of him.

But while following Perez, Alonso behind Qin Miao was quite unruly, making some moves that posed a certain threat to Qin Miao. However, given the time gap between Alonso and Qin Miao, Alonso couldn’t launch an attack or put pressure on Qin Miao.

Of course, Qin Miao is capable of such maneuvers too and is even better at it than Alonso, but seeing the eager veteran behind him, Qin Miao felt a bit uneasy.

In case Alonso opens the DRS and drafts behind him, he might take the inside line with late braking, and Qin Miao might not have a good way to defend against it.

Reluctantly, Qin Miao had to allocate some attention to monitor Alonso behind him in the ensuing race.

However, given the inherent performance difference of the cars, by the third lap when DRS was enabled, Qin Miao refocused his attention away from Alonso.

By this time, the time gap between Qin Miao and Alonso was already 2 seconds.

Alonso, seeing Qin Miao completely unfazed by his actions and not even shifting to a defensive line, could only helplessly acknowledge that the younger generation surpasses the older one. Qin Miao’s defensive intelligence and mindset are indeed beyond his years.

By the fourth lap, the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen had widened to 2 seconds.

Watching a 0.5-second per lap time gap increase left everyone at Mercedes feeling rather helpless.

Qin Miao, on the other hand, kept up with Perez ahead of him, but now faced a new headache.

Although he was within the DRS zone behind Perez, Perez was also closely following Hamilton at just a 0.5-second gap. Perez couldn’t overtake Hamilton in a short time, and due to Perez having DRS from Hamilton, Qin Miao couldn’t launch an attack on Perez on the track.