Upon hearing Frankie ntion the appearance of a virtual safety car, Qin Miao's heart skipped a beat. There's a chance!
Originally feeling a bit helpless for having to give up his position, his fighting spirit suddenly reignited.
"Box! Box!"
At that mont, Qin Miao was just two corners away from the pit lane entrance. Upon hearing the team instructions, he smoothly chose to pit and change tires.
Although Qin Miao didn't know why a virtual safety car suddenly appeared on track, upon entering the pit lane and equipping a fresh set of hard tires, a pop-up from FOM indicated that this pit stop saved him 11 seconds.
In reality, the virtual safety car lasted less than 10 seconds. The debris on the track was very close to the track entrance, and cleaning it up and clearing Matthew from the track took only about 6 seconds. Shortly after Matthew left the track, the virtual safety car was directly canceled.
Therefore, the advantage the virtual safety car brought to Qin Miao wasn't as significant as FOM claid.
When Qin Miao exited, he was precisely 1.5 seconds behind Hamilton.
After letting Hamilton pass, the ti gap that Hamilton and Verstappen had created over the last seven laps was entirely reclaid due to this virtual safety car pit stop.
In reality, Qin Miao rely gained a 4-second advantage.
Of course, you couldn't bla FOM's prediction departnt. After all, they didn't anticipate the virtual safety car ending so quickly. If it had lasted a bit longer, Qin Miao indeed could have overtaken Verstappen and Hamilton directly.
Nonetheless, Qin Miao was very satisfied with his current position.
Most importantly, Qin Miao's tires at this mont were newer than those of Verstappen and Hamilton.
Upon completing lap thirty-two, Qin Miao happily noticed that his speed on hard tires now was actually matching Hamilton's.
After this lap, Hamilton didn't pull away.
It might be because his speed increased considerably after switching to hard tires, or perhaps Hamilton wasn't adapting well to hard tires and his speed slowed down.
Even though both Hamilton and Qin Miao were affected by the turbulent air from the front car, at least it showed that Qin Miao had no gap with Hamilton. He had a chance to attack Hamilton in the upcoming races.
Moreover, given Qin Miao's noble act of letting a teammate pass earlier, if Qin Miao's speed surpassed Hamilton, Hamilton wouldn't let Qin Miao pass but instead, continues to battle on track.
Then, there would certainly be more controversy surrounding Hamilton after this race.
Of course, none of this has happened yet.
Qin Miao's current plan was simple: follow Hamilton, wait for Hamilton and Verstappen to tangle, and seize his opportunity from behind.
Given the current relationship between the three, Verstappen would surely defend against Hamilton's attack with all his might.
Under full defense, both would likely build up so tension.
At that point, going off track, collisions, losing rhythm — anything could happen.
Judging by Hamilton's performance this race weekend, he had a high possibility of overtaking Verstappen. At that mont, Qin Miao could seize the opportunity of Verstappen's disrupted rhythm to gain an advantage.
Afterward, he'd follow Hamilton, facing Qin Miao's attack, Hamilton would be in a dilemma.
Should he let him pass, facing Qin Miao's robust defense, or entirely ignore it and go all out in defending?
Qin Miao looked forward to this scenario.
So after coming out behind, Qin Miao maintained a gap between 1.3 to 1.7 seconds from Hamilton, continually pressuring but without actually posing a threat to him, nor displaying any tactics.
Qin Miao knew that both of their top priorities were to overtake Verstappen, keeping the pressure on Hamilton without diverting his attention toward himself, just letting him know soone was always watching him from behind.
By lap thirty-nine, Hamilton was still 1.1 seconds behind Verstappen. Verstappen was no slouch with speed either, showcasing excellent defensive skills against Hamilton's attack, never allowing him into his DRS zone.
Qin Miao wasn't in a rush, after all, the race was only halfway through.
However, Qin Miao knew that if this dragged on, Hamilton might opt for a second pit stop.
That would an another possible position swap...
While Qin Miao was pondering these possibilities, Verstappen directly chose to pit first.
Upon seeing the Red Bull suddenly change course towards the pit lane, both Qin Miao and Hamilton were taken aback.
After all, he had just discussed the possibility of a second pit stop with his track engineer on the team radio, and Verstappen went for the pit stop without hesitation.
Seeing Verstappen pit, Qin Miao's thoughts shifted, and he began to slow down for tire preservation.
In this situation, aiming for a longer distance, he had a chance to win!
Although this chance was quite slim, given that in the long run, Qin Miao's tires might not endure toward the end of the race.
But it's worth a try. If successful, Qin Miao would be much safer in the championship standings.
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