How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 923 - 364: The Fall of a Legend? (Part 2)
And our seven-time champion Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 at a speed that no one expected.
Moreover, it should be noted, Hamilton's teammate Qin Miao qualified for Q2 strictly with only one flying lap.
At this moment, many domestic viewers seeing this performance from Hamilton have mixed feelings.
Because of Qin Miao, most domestic racing fans often view things from Qin Miao's perspective.
And so they know Hamilton taught Qin Miao a lot, and most people regard Hamilton as a big brother figure.
But everyone knows young drivers in the same team always want to surpass their senior predecessors.
Luckily, Qin Miao did it.
In his first season, he won the world championship, snatching the eighth crown right from his teammate, the seven-time champion Hamilton.
But now, looking at Hamilton, he's been eliminated in Q1.
This feeling is somewhat like watching the domestic scene during the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Some are gleeful, some enjoy the commotion, while others are confused and regretful; various comments are flooding social media platforms like Tieba, Weibo, and Hupu.
Putting aside the matter of Hamilton, domestic fans are quite happy watching this race.
On one hand, Qin Miao easily advanced to Q2, without any pressure, as usual.
Stable like an unfeeling track machine.
On the other hand, Zhou Guanyu outperformed Norris, qualifying ninth for Q2, with only a 0.1-second gap to his teammate Bottas.
For a rookie, this result satisfies Zhou Guanyu himself, domestic fans following him, and the Alfa Romeo team.
Qin Miao sighed when he heard this: "He really is my good son!"
…
On the track, after completing the last flying lap, Qin Miao drove back to the pit area. On the way back, Qin Miao didn't see Hamilton in the classification on his steering wheel display, and upfront were drivers from two rival teams this season, so Qin Miao casually asked: "Where's Lewis?"
After hearing Qin Miao's question, Barber replied: "Uh... Lewis was eliminated in Q1."
"What?"
"Yes, Lewis's qualifying speed was not ideal."
After these words, the TR conversation ended.
But on the way back, Qin Miao's mind was still full of questions.
How did the Old Man get eliminated in Q1? It's not normal.
Upon returning to the garage, pushed into the pit by Reyes and others, Qin Miao lifted his visor and could clearly sense the low pressure in Hamilton's pit area.
Coincidentally, after Qin Miao parked his car and had the old soft tires removed, Hamilton got out of his car and went off with Angela to get weighed.
Hamilton happened to walk past Qin Miao, even glancing at him.
However, Qin Miao didn't see any negative emotions in Hamilton's eyes, but rather more of helplessness and confusion.
He had worked hard for two days, yet his car still wasn't properly tuned, while Qin Miao seemed like nothing happened, his speed still so stable; just how does this guy do it?
Have I really gotten old?
This kind of doubt surfaced in Hamilton's mind.
Nonetheless, no matter what, Hamilton's race was already over, while Qin Miao's race...
Was actually over too, because Qin Miao had already anticipated his final ranking and results for this qualifying session...
After watching Hamilton leave, Qin Miao also regained his own thoughts and started reviewing the video of his previous two flying laps inside his car.
Despite Mercedes having a poor start this season, with a significant gap in performance compared to the other two teams, just like last week in Bahrain, as long as Qin Miao can maintain his stability, there's always an opportunity to take advantage.
Moreover, no matter what, the contract Mercedes provided is being reviewed by his agency, and it should be ready for signing after this race ends.
Surely, he can't let down the promise of a $20 million annual salary from Mercedes, right?
After a short rest, Q2 also began.
At this point, the commentators didn't pay much attention to Qin Miao anymore, because after seeing Qin Miao's stability and speed last season, commentators from Five-Star Sports already have confidence in him, saying they'll only watch him in Q3, he's definitely not falling in Q2.
They now focus on Zhou Guanyu, watching how Zhou Guanyu performs in Q2, whether it's possible to witness the feat of two Chinese F1 drivers simultaneously entering Q3.
With ten minutes left to Q2's stop clock, Qin Miao had already completed his first flying lap in Q2 on a brand new set of soft tires, clocking a time of 1 minute 29.299 seconds.
After completing this time, Qin Miao ran his next flying lap on old soft tires.
No need to use new tires, this time is enough to secure entry into Q3.
What Qin Miao didn't know was that after seeing Qin Miao's time, Toto leaned back in his spot holding his head, and sighed while looking at Hamilton's car.
Meanwhile, there was a minor incident in Q2, Mick lost control coming out of T10 and crashed into the wall.
The whole car was smashed to bits, debris was scattered everywhere.
This is the characteristic of street circuits, once a mistake happens in a high-speed curve, the track without any buffer turns the crash into something extremely disastrous.
A crash this severe naturally led to the deployment of the red flag.
Due to excessive debris, the red flag lasted nearly an hour before clearing the track.
Mick Schumacher was even sent directly to an ambulance, then taken by helicopter to the hospital for examination.
Once Q2 resumed, Qin Miao returned to the track, running a flying lap on old medium tires.
This was purely data collection, the time wasn't important.
At the end of Q2, Qin Miao's time had no change, still 1 minute 29.299 seconds, yet he advanced to Q3 in fifth place.
Sadly, Zhou Guanyu couldn't make it to Q3, and Zhou Guanyu was eliminated in Q2 at the eleventh position.
As the gatekeeper for Q2, Zhou Guanyu was still relatively satisfied with his spot.
Ultimately, the drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Zhou Guanyu, Norris, Ricardo, Mick, Stroll.
Soon, today's main event, Q3 began.
Right from the start, Leclerc, who was in full force this season, set a lap time of 1:28.323, taking the lead on his first flying lap.
Not long after, Qin Miao also completed his first flying lap in Q3, timing at 1:28.816.
Qin Miao had a feeling this is about the fastest he could drive the W13, but even so, the time gap between him and Leclerc was nearly 0.6 seconds.
But it wasn't the end yet. Perez soon gave Ferrari a lesson by taking pole position with a time of 1:28.200, even faster than his teammate Verstappen.
When Q3 ended, Qin Miao found himself in the position he might become very familiar with for the entirety of this season, fifth place.
Finally, the qualifying results were as follows:
1: Perez
2: Leclerc
3: Sainz
4: Verstappen
5: Qin Miao
6: O'Kang
7: Alonso
8: Bottas
9: Gasly
10: Magelsen
11: Zhou Guanyu
12: Norris
13: Stroll
14: Hamilton
15: Ricardo
16: Albon
17: Hockenheim
18: Russell
19: Tsunoda
Mick's car was destroyed, so he couldn't repair it in a day, resulting in withdrawal from the race.
Magelsen continued to bring Haas to an unexpected height, tenth place.
Ricardo was penalized three positions for blocking Gasly's flying lap in Q2, but only two were applied because Mick, despite withdrawing, remained in the classification, as he withdrew due to having no car to drive.
Thus, the qualifying session ended.
PS. Sorry, lately I've been busy, so updates might only be 4K daily. I've noted the previous updates and will compensate for them later, truly sorry.
