How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1150 - 435: Championship at Home

However, Qin Miao didn’t have the face to ask Hamilton to do such a thing, nor would he request Hamilton to help him like this.As a world champion, Qin Miao still had some dignity.

At most, he would look for an opportunity to overtake Hamilton directly, and then use Hamilton behind him to defend against Verstappen, while he himself stayed ahead of Hamilton to provide a slipstream to increase the cost and time for Verstappen to overtake Hamilton.

But this was just Qin Miao’s current idea, and now Verstappen was putting quite a bit of pressure on Qin Miao. Furthermore, the opponent was using soft tires, and although their tires weren’t as fresh as his, Red Bull’s speed this week was always faster than Mercedes.

Lap 65, at T11 after three laps, marked the end of the second DRS zone at Zandvoort circuit.

At this time, the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao was only 0.5 seconds.

Verstappen feigned a move on the inside line before the braking point to pressure Qin Miao, but Qin Miao wasn’t feeling nervous at all.

Qin Miao even somewhat looked forward to Verstappen forcing his way in late at the inside line, as Qin Miao was prepared for this maneuver and could take a cross-line to enter T12 ahead of Verstappen, pushing Verstappen off the track.

However, having tangled on the track with Qin Miao for so long, and having suffered huge losses due to his own impatience numerous times, Verstappen had learned this time. He merely flashed his car as a warning to Qin Miao, applying some pressure but making no further moves.

Qin Miao didn’t feel any regret about this; it was just a contingency in Qin Miao’s mind anyway.

Soon, with the race continuing, Hamilton, Qin Miao, and Verstappen all passed the DRS detection point after turning out of T12.

At this point, Qin Miao was 0.6 seconds behind his teammate Hamilton, and Verstappen was 0.6 seconds behind Qin Miao.

The three maintained almost identical gaps as they advanced to T13, entering the DRS zone and opening the DRS.

The Dutch fans on the scene were excited once again because the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao was shorter than the last time Verstappen attacked Qin Miao, increasing the possibility of Hamilton overtaking Qin Miao this time.

"Defend the inside line," Qin Miao said directly in the team radio.

And these words from Qin Miao were, of course, directed at Hamilton.

Hamilton knew that if he and Qin Miao weren’t teammates, with Qin Miao’s brand new set of soft tires, it would be very easy for Qin Miao to overtake him in the DRS zone.

Since he couldn’t hold the position, he simply decided not to affect Qin Miao’s acceleration.

So, Hamilton didn’t think much about it and yielded his position, partly due to Qin Miao’s earlier words in the team radio.

Although the direct communication between Qin Miao and Hamilton had ended, it was relatively easy for Frankie to convey Qin Miao’s intention.

Especially since Qin Miao had spoken before entering the DRS zone.

What surprised Hamilton a bit was that Qin Miao indeed overtook him on the outside line of the main straight, but did not completely surpass him, instead staying alongside on the outside line.

His left front wheel was now positioned at Qin Miao’s right rear wheel.

The position of the two Mercedes cars on the track, in turn, left Verstappen enough space on the outside to potentially overtake.

Seeing this, Hamilton was full of confusion, while Verstappen’s brow twitched upon seeing it, feeling an ominous premonition.

Based on his understanding of Qin Miao, Qin Miao was a traditional schemer.

Aside from blocking overtakes, his favorite tactic was to set up a trap and then wait for you to walk into it yourself.

Like a cunning and seasoned hunter.

At this moment, Verstappen had a strong premonition that the gap in front of him was a trap set by Qin Miao.

Despite an inner voice persistently telling Verstappen: give up this overtaking opportunity! Preserve your time gap with the Mercedes cars and wait for the next opportunity to attack.

But Verstappen felt that his speed was very fast at that moment, and the width Qin Miao left him seemed sufficient to overtake.

He wanted to try, so Verstappen did so.

However, what happened next was that Verstappen found his acceleration somewhat lacking.

No! It’s not my acceleration that’s lacking, it’s the damn track length!

Verstappen suddenly realized this as he approached the T1 braking point not far ahead and was nearly alongside Qin Miao.

For a normal car overtake, the length of Zandvoort’s main straight would be sufficient. But today Verstappen not only needed to overtake Hamilton, who had already been partially overtaken by Qin Miao, but also Qin Miao himself.

It amounted to overtaking an elongated F1 car all at once.

Then Verstappen could only barely reach a position parallel to Qin Miao before the T1 braking point.

Seeing Verstappen falling into the trap, Qin Miao showed a rare gentle smile on his face.

This time, when braking out of the turn, Qin Miao did not leave much room for Verstappen on the outside, gradually squeezing the outside line position.