Lap 28, Hamilton opted to pit, and at the sa ti Ferrari’s Leclerc, realizing Qin Miao’s terrifying chasing speed, also chose to pit and change tires.
The drivers behind Qin Miao also chose to pit at this ti.
Their purpose of pitting at this point was very clear: a two-stop strategy.
After Hamilton exited the pit lane, the DRS train had just dissolved. Originally, Verstappen’s new dium tires were faster than Hamilton’s old soft tires, but unfortunately, there was a DRS train in front of him.
As a result, Hamilton happened to erge right in front of Verstappen, who had been frustrated by the DRS train all the way.
By lap 29, all drivers on the track had completed a pit stop, and the general standings were as follows:
P1: Qin Miao
P2: Hamilton 5.724
P3: Verstappen 7.791
P4: Leclerc 17.247
P5: Kimi 24.666
P6: Ricardo 26.286
P7: Russell 28.730
P8: Perez 29.130
...
After both Hamilton and Verstappen pitted and changed tires, Qin Miao’s speed was no longer as quick as theirs.
But at least Qin Miao had a five-second buffer, so he could still maintain his own pace for the short term.
In lap 32, Hamilton finally caught up to Qin Miao. Facing his teammate, Qin Miao didn’t give way, but when Hamilton attacked on the DRS straight in lap 33, Qin Miao didn’t defend either.
He simply let Hamilton overtake from his inside line.
The leading position changed hands.
Right behind Qin Miao at this mont was Verstappen, exactly 2 seconds behind.
Looking at the familiar tail lights of the No. 66 rcedes ahead, Verstappen couldn’t help but want to curse.
But the situation was as it was, and all Verstappen could do was vent a bit. Beyond that, there was nothing else he could change. All he could do was maintain his pace and aim to close in and overtake Qin Miao in the race ahead.
After Hamilton overtook Qin Miao with no speed loss, Qin Miao followed behind Hamilton, utilizing slipstream and DRS for two laps, before falling back beyond one second.
By lap 37, Verstappen also closed within one second of Qin Miao.
The reason it took one more lap than usual was mainly because Verstappen needed to recharge his car during this period.
Having experienced Qin Miao’s defensive capabilities, Verstappen knew that overtaking him wheel-to-wheel in regular corners was quite challenging.
No kidding, if Verstappen were given a car with equal performance to Qin Miao’s without DRS, he wasn’t confident he could break through Qin Miao’s defenses.
Moreover, the Catalonia track is hard to overtake on. If Verstappen didn’t want to waste much ti tangling with Qin Miao, the only way was to use raw speed in the DRS zone to overpower and overtake him.
So as Verstappen approached Qin Miao, he started to gauge the distance between the two cars. He needed to keep it within 0.4 seconds so that in the main straight, Verstappen’s DRS and slipstream effect would be optimal and he wouldn’t waste too much ti closing the gap to the car in front.
Qin Miao, of course, noticed Verstappen behind him and roughly judged his intentions.
Qin Miao was well prepared for this, having been recharging his car while following Hamilton. Now his car’s energy reserve was close to 95%.
Seeing the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen reduce to under a second, Hamilton surprisingly felt a sense of relief rather than tension for Qin Miao.
Hamilton believed Qin Miao could hold off Verstappen for at least two laps.
Of course, Hamilton and the rcedes team’s staff had such trust in Qin Miao due to his excellent performance in recent races.
The director switched the cara focus to these two cars.
"Verstappen has closed to within 0.4 seconds of Qin Miao, and his speed is really quick," Fei observed upon seeing the current scene.
Bing added, "rcedes will definitely let the two-stop Qin Miao defend against Verstappen. Even if it’s not for long, just blocking Verstappen for two laps will secure the championship position for Hamilton in this race."
It’s worth noting that after seeing Qin Miao pit early for dium tires, the three comntators imdiately deduced that Qin Miao would employ a two-stop strategy in this race.
After all, Qin Miao still had two sets of new soft tires unused in his tire reserve, so their assessnt was understandable.
"How’s my tire condition?" Qin Miao asked on the team radio while frequently checking the rearview mirror to confirm Verstappen’s position.
"More than three laps of extra margin than expected," replied Frankie with emotion.
Indeed, saving so many laps, the tire wear on Qin Miao’s car was far less than calculated by the team’s strategy group. Once Qin Miao started tire conservation, the durability of his dium tires surpassed even that of hard tires.
Though, at this point, no one on the track was using hard tires for the race...
According to Frankie’s data, after Qin Miao completes the full race distance, he could still go another three laps before his dium tires reach the cliff point and lap tis start to drop rapidly.
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