How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 593 - 253: Excessive Is as Bad as Insufficient

Soon, after completing this flying lap, Qin Miao's position rose to seventh, advancing to Q2 in a fairly average spot.

After all, it's Q1, just moving forward is enough.

The five drivers eliminated at the end of the Q1 stage were: Giovinazzi, Tsunoda, Mick Schumacher, Kimi, Mazepin.

Surprisingly, Williams made it into Q2 with both cars today.

In Q2, Qin Miao used intermediate tires, but Qin Miao used the old set of intermediate tires from Q1.

There's no choice, it's been raining these past days, and there aren't enough intermediate tires. If you want new intermediate tires for the race and Q3, you have to make do in Q2.

Qin Miao and Hamilton were the first to go out.

But just as they went out, the team's meteorological department reported that it would rain in 5 minutes, and this rain would last until the end of Q2.

After a brief discussion, the team's strategy group decided to call both Mercedes drivers back from the track.

And they directly switched to a brand new set of intermediate tires for a decisive shot.

Once the rain starts, they don't plan to go out again, to protect the durability of this set of intermediate tires.

After completing the first flying lap after the pit stop, Hamilton made a mistake, so the first flying lap was let go, while Qin Miao did slightly better with a time of 1:57.3 for the first flying lap, reaching second position.

Shortly after achieving this time, it really started to rain again as predicted by the team's meteorological department.

However, when Qin Miao asked the team if he should pit to preserve his tires, the team directly stated, "No need to pit, this rain will stop soon, keep pushing on the track."

The weather forecast was erroneous.

It seems the team is preparing to abandon Qin Miao's chance to use new intermediate tires in the race, but with Qin Miao's tire management skills, it's not impossible for him to use a set of old tires as if they were new during the race.

In the final stage of Q2, all the drivers refreshed their speeds on the track as conditions gradually improved.

Eventually, Qin Miao advanced to Q3 with a fifth-place finish, while his teammate Hamilton was second.

Drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Leclerc, Latifi, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll.

Aside from Williams advancing both cars to Q2, it was also surprising that Ferrari's two drivers didn't make it into Q3.

Meanwhile, Norris advanced to the next round in both Q1 and Q2 with first place.

And his teammate Ricardo was lagging by 6 positions in qualifying, you could say Norris was rubbing his teammate's face in the dirt.

As soon as Q2 ended, and all the team drivers returned to the garage, a heavy downpour started.

From the meteorological map, it can be seen that this rain shows no sign of decreasing, and is instead getting heavier.

Simultaneously, the wind speed increased to 10 km/h.

Adding more uncertainty to the already slippery Spa track.

The good news is that with such heavy rain, basically, all drivers won't use intermediate tires because the rain now is heavier than at the start of Q1.

Moreover, the rainwater that had been cleared by the cars between Q2 and Q3 was accumulating once again on the track.

In the Q3 stage, the first driver out was Norris.

In this race, Norris was in stellar form, determined to continue his Q1 and Q2 performance in Q3, hoping to snatch a pole position while top drivers like Qin Miao, Hamilton, and Verstappen weren't performing as well in the rain.

As Norris was halfway through his warm-up lap, Vettel stated over the team radio: The rain is too heavy, the race control should bring out the red flag.

The amount of rain indeed warranted a red flag, but for some reason, race control didn't issue one.

As Norris was the first to go out at the start of Q3, he didn't even need to complete the first flying lap, just crossing the line during the warm-up lap gave him a time.

If this red flag lasts a long time, the rest of the session might be canceled, and everyone would line up according to Q2 results, thus Norris would gain pole position, marking the first of his career.

It might sound cruel, but despite racing in F1 for so long, Norris's best career start is only second.

In contrast, Qin Miao achieved his first career pole position at Silverstone.

This isn't a trivial achievement, considering Silverstone is the home race for Qin Miao's teammate, Hamilton.

Getting pole at a teammate's home race is no easy feat.

Even though Qin Miao and Norris haven't had any feuds, and could even hang out together to play games, their relationship is pretty good. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

But because their relationship is good, seeing Qin Miao, who entered the paddock two years later, performing better, Norris can't help but feel jealous of Qin Miao having a good car.

Now finally having a chance to surpass Qin Miao in qualifying, and perhaps even put Hamilton and Verstappen below him, and break his own career record,

Norris pressed the accelerator harder than usual.

Thus, even tho he already had a time after the warm-up lap, he didn't choose to pit but started his first flying lap in Q3.