However, defending against Verstappen would inevitably accelerate Qin Miao’s tire wear, so the Mercedes strategy team had already begun calculating the possibility of Qin Miao using a two-stop strategy at this point.
Meanwhile, on the track, Verstappen took just a lap and a half to catch up to Qin Miao and, with the help of DRS, got another opportunity to attack Qin Miao on the long straight.
Lap 42, at this point, Verstappen had learned his lesson. In the five-lap tussle with Qin Miao, he already knew that Qin Miao was tough to deal with in close combat, so if he wanted to overtake Qin Miao, he had to do it like last time, relying on absolute speed to pass Qin Miao within the DRS.
To achieve everything in one move, Verstappen chose to squeeze out the remaining 40% of his car’s battery power right after exiting T14.
Having experienced Qin Miao’s defensive package, he knew how terrifying Qin Miao’s defensive ability was, so to avoid being trapped by Qin Miao for too long, Verstappen decided to gamble everything this time.
DRS, slipstream, tailwind, ERS, all advantages stacked up again.
As soon as Qin Miao saw the closing rate of the car behind, he knew he couldn’t rely on technique to hold him off in the corners, but when Verstappen overtook him, he still slightly squeezed his racing line.
Verstappen then completed the overtake at two-thirds of the way down the main straight.
Verstappen wasn’t affected by Qin Miao’s squeezing.
This time, Verstappen was still faster than Qin Miao past the DRS detection point before T1, but last time he was only about 0.09 seconds faster than Qin Miao, while this time it was 0.15 seconds. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel⁂fire.net
It might not sound like much, but on the track, 0.15 seconds equates to more than a car length.
Just as Verstappen was preparing to take the corner normally, he suddenly saw Qin Miao’s front wing appear in his rearview mirror.
Looking over, he found Qin Miao’s closing rate was incredibly fast.
And at the turning point, they were side by side, and Verstappen really couldn’t understand how this Mercedes could brake so late and hard without locking up the front wheels.
Though his mind wandered for a moment, Verstappen still understood Qin Miao’s intention: to block his line into the corner with extreme late braking.
But in doing so, Qin Miao would inevitably leave a crossover line for Verstappen. However, Verstappen wasn’t too thrilled about it, because Qin Miao had DRS. Even if he overtook Qin Miao at T1 using the crossover line, Qin Miao could still easily retake the position in the next DRS zone...
Nevertheless, Verstappen used the crossover line to overtake Qin Miao.
And just as Verstappen anticipated, after exiting T3, Qin Miao used ERS and DRS for double acceleration and a late brake to overtake him at T4.
In this instance, Qin Miao wasn’t as clean as before in his defense. With a wider entry angle into T4, Verstappen took the outside line, while Qin Miao, having reached the corner first, left no space for Verstappen on the outside after exiting, forcing him off the track.
Verstappen could have avoided being forced off by lifting off the throttle slightly, but in F1, and with a chance to challenge Hamilton, he wouldn’t consider lifting off in such a moment.
So, unsurprisingly, Verstappen was forced off the track by Qin Miao.
And after being squeezed out, Verstappen naturally complained on the team radio: "F**k! He pushed me off, how can he do that?"
Red Bull could only shake their heads helplessly when they saw this happen. What could they say? That Qin Miao had priority for reaching the corner first, so his actions were justified?
Definitely not, since saying so would affect the driver’s morale, right?
Faced with Verstappen’s complaint, Red Bull could only comfortingly say: "OK, MAX, we’ll report it."
This radio also got played on the broadcast. After hearing Verstappen’s complaint, Fei sharply commented: "There’s nothing wrong with Qin Miao’s defense; such defensive moves are within the FIA’s allowed regulations, and Verstappen has also used this trick often when defending, so anyone can say Qin Miao’s defense is dirty, but not you, Verstappen."
At this moment, the happiest ones were on the Mercedes side. Seeing Qin Miao forcibly push Verstappen out, the technicians looking intently at the screen cheered loudly, and Toto also smiled with satisfaction.
On the track, fortunately, the curb outside T4 wasn’t high, and that area was flat, so although Verstappen was pushed off, he didn’t lose much speed.
However, after the mistake, Verstappen still seemed to lose some rhythm, and he couldn’t find a good overtaking opportunity for the rest of the lap.
Until lap 43, in the DRS zone after T10, Verstappen found another opportunity to attack.
This time it was Qin Miao’s own issue; he was a bit late on the throttle after the turn, causing his speed to fall short of Verstappen’s out of the corner, and combined with Verstappen having the DRS advantage.