But it seems that because of Hamilton’s mistake, Leclerc’s loss during his pit stop wasn’t too significant.

After the race restarted, Verstappen put his terrifying performance in qualifying into practice, and his speed in the race was still ridiculously fast.

Starting from 14th, he caught up to 6th after 6 laps.

He gained 8 positions in 6 laps.

Even Qin Miao’s fastest race in the 2021 season with the most overtakes wasn’t as absurd as Verstappen’s performance.

By the 7th lap, he was in fourth place.

By the 8th lap, he had overtaken his teammate Perez and was behind Qin Miao.

Qin Miao was absorbing Sainz’s slipstream, using the DRS provided by Sainz, while keeping a constant eye on Perez behind him. Suddenly, Perez switched places, becoming Verstappen.

After seeing Pan’s car, Qin Miao naturally tightened his grip, then exclaimed in confusion: "Damn it, wasn’t this bastard starting from 14th place? How did he get behind me in just 8 laps?"

Frankie was silent for a moment: "We also want to know why."

Qin Miao was just a bit puzzled after seeing Verstappen behind him, venting to his team’s staff without really wanting an answer.

After all, once the qualifying results came out yesterday, Qin Miao knew that the Red Bull car was abnormally fast in this race, and he was mentally prepared to be overtaken purely by speed.

On the 12th lap, utilizing the DRS provided by Sainz ahead, Qin Miao once again engaged in an intense battle with Verstappen on the track.

Even though Qin Miao had many advantages.

The DRS from the car in front, the softer tires with better grip than the car behind from Verstappen, and Verstappen’s relatively low ERS energy reserves after overtaking so many cars.

Despite Qin Miao having so many advantages, he still felt quite strained defending against Verstappen behind him.

Verstappen’s driving was precise and efficient, but Qin Miao’s driving and stability were not much worse than Verstappen’s. However, this guy’s car was just fast, purely fast, unreasonably fast.

Fast in corners, fast in acceleration, even faster on straights, especially the DRS efficiency.

When Qin Miao’s DRS opened, it might only increase his speed by 15 km/h, but this Red Bull car increased by at least 24 km/h.

If it weren’t for Sainz’s cooperation, blocking Verstappen’s late braking line, they both would have been overtaken by Verstappen long ago.

But this defense didn’t last long, no matter how fast Verstappen’s car was, he wasn’t Qin Miao, and after 12 laps, Verstappen’s soft tire speed started to decline.

Sainz ahead of Qin Miao felt it even more.

So on the 12th lap, Sainz had to pit due to tire wear issues.

And at this time, Verstappen’s speed wasn’t as advantageous as when he was chasing Qin Miao. Qin Miao could barely defend against Verstappen.

By the 15th lap, the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao narrowed to 0.9 seconds, and Qin Miao’s difficulty in defending against Verstappen gradually decreased.

Finally, Verstappen couldn’t take it anymore, despite driving such a fast car, being stuck behind Qin Miao really didn’t make sense.

Verstappen pitted to change to medium tires, coming out in third place, 4 seconds behind Sainz.

At this time, Qin Miao’s speed was still impressive, so he still did not choose to pit for a tire change.

On lap 18, with new tires, Verstappen took only two laps to overtake Sainz ahead.

This shows that the speed difference between the Red Bull and Ferrari cars was genuinely 1.8 seconds per lap.