Of course, Toto also didn’t forget to put Qin Miao’s new contract on the agenda, with benefits worthy of Qin Miao’s current strength and status.
Hamilton’s strategy today is yellow-yellow-white.
With Qin Miao behind him to withstand Verstappen’s pressure, Hamilton would be more comfortable in this race, so the strategy was relatively simple.
Apart from tire strategy, there was also a detailed explanation of the track’s current meteorological conditions, such as the wind direction and which corners require attention due to crosswinds.
Qin Miao listened particularly attentively to this because he had suffered from wind measurements during the qualifying rounds; otherwise, he might have taken pole position.
After more than twenty minutes, the meeting ended, and Qin Miao and Hamilton returned to their respective lounges to wait for the track to open, changing their clothes in the meantime.
Changing clothes was easy for Qin Miao, as he was just wearing the team’s uniform and a pair of pants, which he didn’t know the brand of, bought by Qimeng.
After taking them off, he put on a sweat-wicking and fireproof inner garment. Wearing the one-piece racing suit, to be honest, feels quite restrictive, so Qin Miao just put on the pants and tied the sleeves of his shirt around his waist.
After preparing, Qin Miao played on his phone in his lounge for a while, and then it was almost time.
After sorting out his gear and taking a sip from his thermos, Qin Miao headed to the pit with Barber.
Upon reaching the pit, Qin Miao sat in the car that was already prepared and started the ignition.
After the ignition, with the race’s permission, Qin Miao put on a set of old soft tires, ran a lap on the track, and confirmed that the car was running normally.
Then, he returned to the pit for a sensor check on the car, and after ensuring there were no issues, Qin Miao went out to his starting grid position. At the starting grid, they replaced Qin Miao’s tires with new mediums and covered them with warming blankets, waiting for the race to officially start.
While in the car, Qin Miao didn’t forget to put a buff on his car.
After applying the buff, Qin Miao didn’t get out to wander around and stayed seated in the cockpit, listening to music.
At the beginning, being cooped up in the monocoque for a long time was indeed uncomfortable. After all, the entire body is locked by seat belts, and the legroom is very limited, so after a while, his joints felt rusty and uncomfortable.
But after gradually getting used to the feeling of being squeezed into the small monocoque, Qin Miao instead felt a sense of security and could stay there.
Half an hour later, the time came, track staff withdrew, and all cars ignited.
The formation lap began.
There’s not much to elaborate on during the formation lap. Official source ıs novelꜰire.net
After completing it, everyone honestly parked their cars in their respective positions.
Since Qin Miao was starting from the dirty side on the right, his car was slightly angled to the left, aligning with the driving line.
This way, after the start, Qin Miao could move to the left without losing traction from turning and quickly drive on the grippier racing line.
It’s all about details.
Soon, the track and pit lane gradually quieted down. Qin Miao sipped some water to moisten his lips, glanced at Hamilton on his left, checked Verstappen to his left rear through the rearview mirror, and also took a peek at Leclerc behind him.
Qin Miao didn’t deny Leclerc’s talent, but truly, the Ferrari car didn’t quite meet expectations, so Qin Miao just gave it a glance, feeling a bit glad he didn’t go to Ferrari initially. After some random thoughts drifting through his mind, Qin Miao refocused his gaze on the five red lights above him.
One red light lit up among the five dark lights directly above Qin Miao.
"Beep," the second light.
"Click." 0.1 seconds after the red lights lit up, Qin Miao pressed the clutch button.
The engine, maintaining at 8000 rpm, suddenly burst with powerful energy, and Qin Miao, along with the eighteen cars behind him, accelerated sharply.
Having a clear understanding of the goal for this race, Qin Miao didn’t have any intention to attack Hamilton after the start, instead slipping behind Hamilton’s car smoothly.
Although Qin Miao’s start was slightly slower than Verstappen’s, it wasn’t slow enough for Verstappen to overtake before T1.
Successfully entering T1, Verstappen attempted to overtake Qin Miao, but with just a slightly better start, he couldn’t find the chance to overtake Qin Miao.
Although reluctant to admit it, Verstappen knew that to fight for the championship in the subsequent race, he must overcome the hurdle of Qin Miao before chasing Hamilton.
To be honest, after experiencing Qin Miao’s defense in Bahrain and Imola, seeing Qin Miao’s taillights on track gave Verstappen a headache.
Thus, to effectively avoid Qin Miao at the start, Verstappen used soft tires, aiming to overtake Qin Miao in the shortest time possible and to widen the gap.
Qin Miao’s defense was too strong; using a two-stop strategy like Mercedes with yellow-yellow-white, Verstappen would certainly be blocked by Qin Miao.
So Red Bull had to employ this rather risky and aggressive strategy.