After witnessing this scene, Qin Miao cursed angrily in his heart: "Damn it, how can he be so fast?"
Qin Miao, who was distracted and allowed his position to be taken by Verstappen, definitely felt somewhat unwilling at this point. However, seeing the rapidly approaching Verstappen, he had no way to fight back. He could only attempt to suppress Verstappen’s line, but the speed of the car was far superior to his. The Honda engine this season was like a monster, and Qin Miao’s attempts gave him little help.
Thus, the two cars came to the T2 position one after the other. Verstappen, relying on sufficient straight-line speed, had reached the side of Qin Miao. The two cars almost entered the corner side by side.
As they entered T2, Verstappen did not choose a late brake to block Qin Miao’s route. With Perez right behind them watching intently, a late brake on Qin Miao could indeed prevent Qin Miao, but wouldn’t Perez just slip past?
Therefore, Verstappen still opted for a late brake but not extremely, allowing Qin Miao some room while sealing his own inside line.
However, at the apex of T2, as Verstappen had the inside line and a speed advantage, his car had some prominence compared to Qin Miao. Naturally, it resulted in having the line rights within the track rules.
Qin Miao felt truly helpless at this moment. He had strength but no way to exert it; if he didn’t want to be pushed off the track at T3 by Verstappen, he had to obediently yield the line.
What dangers would doing so entail? Would Pan concern himself with these? As long as it’s within the rules, he wouldn’t mind directly bumping you off.
Besides, being bumped off now was also Qin Miao’s problem. The race committee wouldn’t stand up for Qin Miao. If they had a serious collision, the committee might even directly penalize Qin Miao.
At that time, carrying a 5-second penalty could cost Qin Miao the podium.
Therefore, after Verstappen’s car overtook him, Qin Miao’s defense announced its failure, and he had no choice but to let him pass.
Verstappen completed the overtake through the T2T3T4 combination corners.
"Oh no, what a pity." Seeing Qin Miao overtaken by Verstappen, the three commentators of Five-Star Sports truly felt it was a shame.
"Qin Miao couldn’t hold his position, but honestly, once he lost the inside line, defending his position at T2 was indeed difficult."
"Mainly, Qin Miao’s start was not as fast as Verstappen’s. If Qin Miao’s start were slightly better, he wouldn’t lose this position so easily."
Verstappen’s maneuver seemed merely to discreetly steer clear of Qin Miao after the race restart, then blocked the inside line and completed the overtake into T2. Content originally comes from Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
But there was much more to it; Verstappen employed many tactics. First, he used the rain screen to reduce the visibility of his car in Qin Miao’s view. Then he seized the moment when Qin Miao glanced at the rear-view mirror to briefly divert Qin Miao’s attention, capturing the gap to head from the left and overtake.
It could be said that timing, favorable conditions, and human efforts were indispensable. Only then did Verstappen achieve this seemingly simple and easy overtake.
After overtaking Qin Miao, Verstappen enthusiastically shouted in his helmet: "HOOO! Let’s go!"
Qin Miao had left a profound impression on Verstappen during Bahrain. Originally, knowing it was raining today and with Qin Miao’s qualifying result ahead of him, Verstappen truly thought he’d be eating his dust for a while behind Qin Miao again.
Once disentangled from Qin Miao’s constraints, it would take a long time to chase Hamilton ahead.
Ultimately, can he even catch up to Hamilton? That’s still an unknown.
Verstappen naturally felt pressure, because if he was entangled with Qin Miao for too long, the gap between him and Hamilton would widen too much, making the championship fight irrelevant to him again.
Thus, overtaking Qin Miao right after the start gave Verstappen a pleasant surprise of having found money, and a sense of fulfillment after defeating a strong opponent.
And what about Qin Miao? Feeling a bit remorseful after exiting the corner, he said in TR, "Sorry, I couldn’t defend against Verstappen’s attack; he was just too fast."
Frankie and them couldn’t judge Qin Miao’s defense at this time in TR. Hearing Qin Miao’s words, they just comforted, "It’s okay, the race is still long. A single mistake doesn’t mean much; let’s keep pushing!"
After exiting the corner, Qin Miao checked Verstappen’s speed, and after a quick estimation, realized he probably couldn’t catch up. He then looked at Perez behind him, who was about 0.2 seconds away. Under rain and without DRS, Qin Miao was confident he could secure his position.
In the seventh lap, after accelerating out of T18, Qin Miao discovered his speed was slightly quicker than Perez’s, extending the original 0.2-second gap to 0.4 seconds.
Upon receiving this information, Qin Miao felt significantly more at ease.
It was also at this moment the team reminded Qin Miao in TR: "The rain might gradually lessen after 20 minutes, and then we’ll call you back for a tire change."