How Did I Become an F1 Driver? Chapter 776 316: Unexpected Yellow Flag

In the first tid sector, Verstappen imdiately went purple, which is actually normal, considering that the first tid sector is the most winding section of the Jeddah Circuit, and the Red Bull car is famously fast in dium and high-speed corners.

Soon, Verstappen finished the second tid sector and went purple once again.

Verstappen's ti in the first two tid sectors was already 0.3 seconds faster than Hamilton.

This made the rcedes side a bit anxious, because if things continued like this, Verstappen had a great chance of ultimately winning pole position in this qualifying session.

But soon, the rcedes team was relieved.

At the beginning of the third tid sector, Verstappen's pace was still quite good, just like in the first and second sectors, and his speed was very fast.

The three comntators from Five-Star Sports, seeing those two purple sectors, unanimously said, "There's no problem now. Verstappen's speed is too fast, at least 0.2 seconds quicker than Hamilton."

Just as they finished speaking, the broadcast footage switched to Verstappen at the last corner of the third tid sector, T27, the slowest corner on the entire track.

Then, we saw Verstappen's rear wheels slip after exiting the corner.

It might have been because the working temperature of the rear tires dropped, or it could have been due to other reasons. In any case, Verstappen, who had been very fast on this flying lap, made a mistake at this corner.

After exiting the corner, the rear wheels lost grip and fishtailed.

And the Jeddah Circuit has no runoff areas, the right shoulder right after exiting T27 is right up against the barriers.

So after Verstappen's car's right rear wheel went out of control, it slamd straight into the barrier of the track.

Although the collision wasn't severe, and the car didn't suffer any structural damage.

But Verstappen still ended up with a tire blowout on his right rear wheel.

We must understand that F1 is a sport where every second counts. This mistake would completely ruin the excellent tis Verstappen had in the first two tid sectors of this lap.

Now, with the tire blowout, the ti from this flying lap was imdiately invalidated.

After a gasp, the three comntators from Five-Star Sports, although expressing regret for Verstappen, if you were watching in the broadcast room, you'd notice that the corners of their mouths were turned up at this mont.

The smile on their lips was like an AK, impossible to suppress.

anwhile, at Red Bull, who were full of hope, were staring in disbelief after seeing Verstappen crash. Horner sighed helplessly while Marco covered his face with both hands.

As for rcedes, who were a bit nervous earlier, they let out a long sigh of relief after seeing Verstappen's crash, followed by a burst of laughter.

Even though the rcedes team's pit area is right next to the Red Bull team's, the laughter could be heard by the Red Bull team staff next door.

But they didn't care at all, and in fact, it's fair to say that this laughter was ant for the team next door to hear.

Because of the Jeddah Circuit's characteristics, an accident on the track would 100% result in a yellow flag.

Not to ntion that Verstappen had co to a stop on the track.

Therefore, the few drivers behind Verstappen who hadn't finished their final flying laps got unlucky, and their lap tis were imdiately invalidated.

With Verstappen's ti canceled, naturally, the two rcedes drivers secured the front row for tomorrow's race.

Hamilton will start from pole position, and Qin Miao is second.

So the starting order for tomorrow's race is as follows:

1: Hamilton

2: Qin Miao

3: Verstappen

4: Leclerc

5: Perez

6: Gasly

7: Norris

8: Tsunoda

9: O'Kang

10: Giovinazzi

Qin Miao, knowing that Verstappen withdrew due to the crash, also breathed a sigh of relief.

Despite the fact that from the qualifying session, Verstappen had shown that Red Bull indeed had so rits in terms of single-lap speed.

But based on practice session data, the rcedes car had quite an advantage in long-distance racing.

So Qin Miao felt that tomorrow in the race, the only trouble he needed to face would be Hamilton.

After the race, Verstappen had to walk a bit towards the area, while Qin Miao and Hamilton had already pushed their cars from the pit to the track.

After a brief celebration, the post-race interviews began.

At this ti, the post-race interviews were more for the warm-up for tomorrow's race, so the responses from the two rcedes drivers were relatively bland.

During the post-race interview stage, the only one to look forward to was actually Verstappen's interview.

Verstappen is known for being a maverick in interviews.

So, when Verstappen was being interviewed, he didn't reveal much, mainly saying that he didn't hit the apex at T27, and then for so reason, the left front wheel locked up.

But at that ti, Verstappen didn't want to waste the ti advantage he had gained in the first and second tid sectors, so after the corner, Verstappen didn't give up on this lap and intended to continue accelerating.

Then, as the spectators saw, Verstappen lost control of the car after accelerating, the right rear wheel hit the wall, and the car finally stopped on the track, canceling the last flying lap.

No matter what, this mistake by Verstappen was good news for everyone at rcedes.