Verstappen’s car nose was a quarter ahead of Qin Miao’s car, then braked into T1, while Qin Miao braked late to make up that quarter gap, so they both almost entered T1 simultaneously. As they turned right, Qin Miao pressured Verstappen’s racing line but didn’t push Verstappen off-track, leaving more than 1.2 car widths of space.
However, if Verstappen takes this space, the angle into T2 won’t be good, inevitably affecting speed.
So Verstappen didn’t go into the corner parallel with Qin Miao at this turn. Instead, after Qin Miao’s late brake, he took a cross line, achieving a faster corner exit speed than Qin Miao.
In T2 and T3, although Qin Miao was ahead, Verstappen with the Honda engine was visibly faster than Qin Miao.
The gap between the two cars was closing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Beautiful, Qin Miao held his position, but Verstappen taking the cross line got a significantly faster exit speed than Qin Miao, and next is the DRS zone."
"Wait, why did Verstappen’s speed slow down on the straight after T3?"
"DRS! It’s the DRS, Qin Miao has DRS! At the DRS detection point before entering T1, Qin Miao was just behind Verstappen, so now Qin Miao can use DRS!"
...
Thanks to precise calculations when entering T1, Qin Miao deliberately let Verstappen pass at T1, allowing him to hit the DRS detection point first.
Although this year’s rcedes is slower in corners than last year’s, and its absolute speed is no match for the Honda engine, it’s not that much worse. Plus, Qin Miao’s car setup leans towards understeer, making his straight-line speed relatively fast. Adding this to Qin Miao having DRS, on this straight, Qin Miao even widened the gap between himself and Verstappen slightly.
However, putting aside Qin Miao’s subtle trickery in defense, after entering T4, Qin Miao was now on a part of the track where there’s no need to worry about being overtaken.
Partly because there are many corners in these areas, with no suitable overtaking line, and partly because the rcedes is faster than the Red Bull in sector two, Qin Miao could slightly relax his tense nerves and wait for Verstappen’s next attack.
In racing, rhythm is very important. Verstappen’s failed attack on Qin Miao would, to so extent, cause him to lose his rhythm.
So after the failed attack this lap, Verstappen only managed to get back within a second behind Qin Miao after passing T14 this lap.
Before reaching the DRS detection point at T14 this ti, Verstappen didn’t have the DRS boost, relying solely on the slipstream, which was much stronger than usual, to get close to Qin Miao. Only after passing T3, entering the second DRS zone on the track, did Verstappen get a chance to attack Qin Miao.
This ti, Verstappen opted for an inside line attack, given that during the first attack on Qin Miao just now, the opponent relied on ruthlessly defending the inside line to thwart Verstappen’s attack route.
Because Verstappen now had the DRS advantage, by the ti they reached the braking point, both cars again were parallel entering the corner.
And this ti Qin Miao firmly held the outside line, only nudging to the right slightly to press Verstappen’s advancing line when they were side by side.
Although it looked like Qin Miao only changed his line when Verstappen reached his car’s rear end, which seed a bit unethical, Qin Miao’s maneuver wasn’t inappropriate.
Because the regulations prohibit defense by making consecutive lane changes, but Qin Miao was originally in a normal driving state, only changing lanes once when Verstappen approached his side. Plus, Qin Miao left Verstappen two car widths of track space, not squeezing him directly off the track.
So Qin Miao’s maneuver was legal according to FIA race regulations.
But this pressure did indeed affect Verstappen sowhat.
No matter who it is, the imdiate reaction to a car suddenly squeezing in is to ease off the throttle to avoid it.
And F1 drivers react differently; Verstappen just turned right to avoid Qin Miao’s squeeze when he discovered it.
But Qin Miao’s sowhat spiteful defensive tactic did toy with Verstappen a bit.
It might not have affected Verstappen’s speed much, but it certainly impacted him ntally.
In the ga, Qin Miao’s tactic was called ssing with the opponent’s mind.
After pressuring Verstappen’s corner entry angle, Qin Miao returned to the normal corner entry line.
Before Verstappen could make any moves, Qin Miao already took a cross line.
Qin Miao anticipated that Verstappen would brake late to block his corner entry line.
And Verstappen indeed did as Qin Miao predicted, braking late to close off Qin Miao’s corner entry line. But Qin Miao, well-prepared, was unaffected, exiting behind Verstappen’s rear end and even overtaking him again after exit due to having a faster speed.
While Verstappen, due to his late braking, took a slightly wide line and lost 0.6 seconds of rhythm.
Even though Verstappen was faster than Qin Miao, he had to run another half lap to make up the 0.6 seconds.
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