Leclerc actually didn’t want to, but when it comes to racing intelligence, Leclerc, who isn’t considered very smart, still followed the advice of the Ferrari strategy group.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with Leclerc’s choice. If he weren’t with Ferrari or Alfa Romeo, the team’s strategy to call him in would have given him a real chance to grab that extra point.

But unfortunately, the team he serves is Ferrari.

So as expected, something unexpected happened while executing the tactics.

In lap 43, after exiting the pit lane, Leclerc emerged 1 second ahead of Alonso.

Then, with Leclerc’s tires not warmed up enough, Alonso caught his slipstream after entering the Elloge corner, and eventually passed Leclerc in the DRS zone between T4 and T5.

With Alonso passing him, Leclerc naturally had no chance to gain that fastest lap point in the late stage of the race.

But Leclerc is still a genius, and even though the Ferrari car was severely hit by TD039, the Ferrari itself is still stronger than the Alpine car.

So eventually, Leclerc regained his position in the last lap of the race.

At least for now, it looks like nothing significant was lost due to the team’s foolish tactics.

Then came the fun part.

Leclerc was speeding by 1 km/h in the pit lane, for which the FIA gave him a five-second penalty.

Actually, Leclerc is still behind Alonso now, and even if Leclerc had the speed of a Red Bull car and a brand new set of soft tires, it’s impossible for him to open a five-second gap over Alonso in one lap.

So in the end, Ferrari ended up with nothing. Originally, Leclerc could have stably secured ten points, but in pursuit of a fastest lap point, he lost two points and finished with eight points in sixth place.

The reason Leclerc was speeding in the pit lane was not because he was in a hurry. After all, no matter how hurried you are, in the pit lane, with speed limits on, you can’t really speed.

The investigation after the race revealed the reason.

At the beginning of the race, a lens protection film got stuck in Leclerc’s brake duct, didn’t it?

That lens film burned out the speed sensor on Leclerc’s front wheel, which eventually led to Leclerc speeding in the pit lane.

All you can say is that misfortunes never come singly; Leclerc was really having bad luck.

And this race, Leclerc’s bad luck was not just a one-time thing but layered like a bra on an old sow, an endless series of misfortunes.

It’s as if the team, the car, or anything else were deliberately targeting Leclerc.

In the end, Alonso, who benefited from Ferrari’s fainting strategy, naturally beamed with joy during the post-race interview session. As a former victim of the Ferrari nightmare and a beneficiary of Ferrari’s routine brainless tactics, Alonso is undoubtedly one of the best commentators on Ferrari’s current fainting strategy.

After being asked the question by a reporter, Alonso just laughed and said, "Ferrari often comes up with some strange strategies, and this is just one of them."

In the end, the race concluded with a big win for the Red Bull team.

Although Qin Miao had already given everything in this race, pulling off a heaven-defying long stint, and his lap speed in the final lap before the race ended was still his fastest lap.

But in the face of absolute speed advantage, all of Qin Miao’s struggles and tire conservation seemed somewhat laughable.

After crossing the finish line, even though Qin Miao saw his team staff cheering for him from the pit wall, he just couldn’t feel happy.

There are performance differences in cars, or he didn’t perform well enough and lost, Qin Miao wouldn’t say anything about it, nor would he have much negative emotion.

However, with a single lap time gap of 1.8 seconds, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen at the end of the race reached as much as 24 seconds.

If running normally and running a few more laps, could Verstappen just lap the second-place Qin Miao?

Having had a smooth journey all the way, Qin Miao now was feeling somewhat dejected.

"We know this result is a bit unbelievable, but trust me, we’ll find out the reason soon.

And in any case, your performance in today’s race was great, there’s no need to feel guilty about it." Toto’s voice reached Qin Miao’s ears.

"Yes, I know, I just didn’t expect the gap to be this huge."

"We are also quite surprised, but it has happened, and all we can do is accept it and work hard to catch up," Toto’s voice was also full of helplessness.

Amid the orange smoke raised by the on-site audience, Qin Miao drove his car back to the pit lane. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

At this time, the two Red Bull cars had already parked in first and second place.

Verstappen was also standing on his car, celebrating fervently with the team staff and fans around.

Climbing out of the car, having installed the steering wheel, Qin Miao shook hands and hugged Perez, who came over to greet him, then stood next to Verstappen’s car, hands on his hips, looking at the RB18 with only one doubt in his mind: how is this B car running so fast?

On the other side, the broadcaster fixed the camera on Qin Miao.

After the reigning champion was defeated, standing in front of the opponent’s car, unable to figure out why the scene was filled with a different kind of ambiance.

The commentators from Five-Star Sports naturally noticed Qin Miao standing beside the Red Bull car.

"Qin Miao is also very puzzled after the race," Bing said a little sympathetically.

Fei shook his head and said, "It’s something you can’t help; before the summer break, everyone was still kind of evenly matched, who would have thought that after a summer break, Mercedes couldn’t even see the tail lights of Red Bull on the track."

"This sudden gap is indeed not so easy to accept," Zhou Haoran said, "Of course, we are not worried about Qin Miao. His mentality should be the most stable among drivers of the same level."

Qin Miao didn’t watch for long, and Verstappen came over.

Qin Miao reached out and gave him a handshake.

"Congratulations, you ran a great race today," Qin Miao said.

Although Qin Miao was full of negative emotions for not achieving a good result today, and was quite puzzled about why the Red Bull car was so fast—

But when Verstappen came over, Qin Miao still smiled and greeted him.

"At the beginning of the race, I thought I could quickly overtake you, but really, your defense ability is terrifying, respect," Verstappen genuinely praised Qin Miao.

The fact is indeed that at the beginning of the race, Verstappen already knew that his car was incredibly fast, unbelievably so.

In fact, Red Bull’s lap speed in this race was about 0.5 seconds faster than Ferrari’s second quickest lap, and 0.8 seconds faster than Mercedes’s lap.

With such a time advantage, Verstappen was ready to use this race to avenge his shame, and to fiercely overtake Qin Miao on the track.

After all, over the course of the entire previous season, Qin Miao had already become the driver Verstappen least wanted to see ahead of his car during a race.

Verstappen thought he would be able to break this nightmare with today’s race.

Then he confidently chased up behind Qin Miao, who was also starting on soft tires... only to be blocked by Qin Miao for three laps.

The familiar formula, the familiar taste, and these three laps directly invalidated Verstappen’s set of soft tires in terms of durability, forcing him to rely on a pit stop tire change to undercut Qin Miao later.

Despite being frustrated by Qin Miao’s maneuvers once more, winning the championship felt great, so Verstappen didn’t mind acknowledging Qin Miao’s racing skills at the moment.

After all, the higher you praise Qin Miao, doesn’t it make defeating Qin Miao all the more impressive?

"Faced with a car’s absolute speed difference, honestly, my defense skills are really nothing to brag about," Qin Miao shook his head with a wry smile, but finally reached out and shook Verstappen’s hand, saying, "But regardless, congratulations to you, enjoy your victory."

The two had already talked enough after the race, and Qin Miao also saw Frankie and Reyes waiting for him.

"Thank you," Verstappen replied politely.