How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1164 - 440: Teach You Three Phrases to Provoke Leclerc

Qin Miao can attempt to use his advantage in tire preservation to attack Sainz in the later stages of the race.And now, this is the time point when Qin Miao can make a move against Sainz.

The live broadcast cameras no longer focused on the leading Verstappen, being fixated instead on Sainz and Qin Miao.

After all, everyone knew they were about to battle it out.

However, the duel between Qin Miao and Sainz ultimately did not commence.

Because on lap 47, an incident occurred on the track, and this incident quickly turned into a yellow flag, then a safety car.

On lap 47, Ricardo, who was in seventh, retired due to an oil leak on the car at the lawn area of the second time sector.

Since there was no pit entrance near Ricardo’s retirement spot and to prevent fire from causing secondary damage to the car, Ricardo directly shut off the engine and couldn’t move the car to the pit entrance before retiring.

So after a brief consideration, the race officials deployed the safety car.

With the safety car on track, the time loss from pitting reduced from 25 seconds to 12 seconds.

Thus, a large number of drivers chose to pit and change tires at this time.

The time loss from pitting during this period was minimal, and with the cars being very light, putting on new soft tires or soft tires only used for a lap or two in qualifying could greatly enhance lap speed.

However, among those preparing to change tires, Qin Miao was not included.

Although Qin Miao still had a new set of soft tires in reserve, he believed that anyway, with 6 laps left until the end of the race, the 12-second time loss for a pit stop didn’t seem that appealing in 6 laps.

What about the race being compressed together due to the safety car? What happens after the restart?

Qin Miao looked silently at Zhou Guanyu, who he had lapped in his rearview mirror.

Moreover, after the safety car came out, it did not slot in front of Verstappen but in front of Sainz.

In Qin Miao’s judgment, for the safety car to restart, it would certainly need to unlatch lapped cars and sort out the starting positions of all subsequent drivers.

This process would take at least 5 laps.

By then, there would only be 2 laps left in the race.

Even though Qin Miao’s speed today was not as fast as the team had imagined, and he appeared somewhat weak and helpless under the formidable engine of Ferrari.

Qin Miao was still confident in defending with his relatively good condition soft tires for two laps.

Moreover, starting from nineteenth at the back of the grid and chasing up to fourth, Qin Miao’s performance in today’s race was impeccable.

If he gambled correctly, Qin Miao’s position could jump two places, peeling off the two Ferrari drivers ahead and moving from fourth to second, earning eight extra points.

If he gambled wrong, it would only mean the loss of fifth to fourth for two points.

There might even be a chance that the teammate behind him couldn’t break through his defense, possibly not losing a single point.

Although Qin Miao didn’t like gambling, there was no reason for him to refuse this low-risk, high-reward choice.

Qin Miao’s clandestine plan this time was mainly targeted at the two Ferrari drivers; currently, Leclerc was 10 seconds behind, and Sainz was 1.4 seconds on Qin Miao’s face.

After they entered the pit, they would come out behind Qin Miao.

Although the safety car would zero the time gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc during this period, Qin Miao would hold a two-position advantage.

As for Verstappen...

Although the time gap between Verstappen and Leclerc at this moment wasn’t as large as it was in mid-race, it was still 16 seconds.

Under such a large time gap, even if Verstappen received a 4-second pit stop from the team, he wouldn’t lose any position.

On the other hand, as soon as the safety car was deployed, Frankie immediately told Qin Miao through the team radio: "Safety car deployed, now there’s a 7-second gap between you and Hamilton, we’ll choose to double stack, repeat, double stack."

Qin Miao replied: "Copy that."

Even though Qin Miao didn’t intend to pit to change tires, he still responded to the team radio this way.

The main consideration was that if he told the team at this point that he wasn’t planning to pit and wanted to undercut the two Ferrari drivers ahead, they might be wary.

They might even learn from his strategy and not pit as well.

To avoid such a situation, it’s better to let the team’s staff remain clueless for a while.

Finally, when the cars came back near the pit entrance, Qin Miao saw Leclerc pitting, and Sainz ahead of him was about to pit too.

And when Sainz pitted, Qin Miao followed behind Sainz, making it look like Qin Miao also wanted to pit with Sainz.

At the pit area, the Mercedes team staff was fully prepared, placing both Qin Miao and Hamilton’s tires in the most convenient spots, ready for quick access.

It looked like the Mercedes team was planning a double pit stop.

However, Qin Miao, who was initially following right behind Sainz, suddenly veered left just before the white line at the pit entrance, continuing on the track, leaving Sainz to head alone into the pit.

This scene not only stunned the Ferrari team staff, who had been watching Qin Miao’s car intently, but also left the ready Mercedes team staff momentarily unsure, as they looked at the tires in their hands for Qin Miao and then glanced at Hamilton’s tires beside them, momentarily puzzled.