Soon, following the race committee’s notification, the team’s crew conducted the final preparations before the race, pushing the cars onto the track.
After the crew was ready, Qin Miao headed onto the track to take the oath, listened to the Spanish national anthem, and then returned to his car to await the start of the race.
With that, all the pre-race preparations were completely finished.
The only noteworthy event was that before entering his car, Hamilton came over to console Qin Miao, essentially telling him to keep faith in the team as a gearbox failure was a rare event, and the likelihood of it happening again in the upcoming races was low.
It exuded a feeling of an elder caring for a young person not yet experienced in the ways of the world.
In fact, Hamilton, 16 years older than Qin Miao, did have a sort of feeling of looking at a younger generation when he looked at Qin Miao.
Naturally, Qin Miao nodded in agreement, not even daring to show a hint of impatience, as this scene of Hamilton earnestly advising Qin Miao was being recorded by countless cameras or camcorders at that moment.
However, Hamilton soon let Qin Miao go to start his preparations.
The tenth turn of the Catalonia circuit had been modified, making the lap length 4.675 kilometers.
Today, Pirelli provided the tire compounds C1 to C3, the hardest three tires, indicating how severe the tire wear is on this track.
Pirelli’s own calculations showed that at least two pit stops are needed, with one stop being a relatively slower pit strategy. Get full chapters from novel⟡fire.net
The race starting grid was as follows:
Row 1: Hamilton, Qin Miao
Row 2: Verstappen, Leclerc
Row 4: Ricardo, Perez
Row 5: Norris, Alonso
Row 7: Vettel, Giovinazzi
Row 8: Russell, Yuki Tsunoda
Row 10: Latifi, Mazepin
At this moment, most of the team’s crew had already withdrawn from the track, leaving only a few staff to ensure vehicle safety.
And just then, out of the corner of his eye, Qin Miao noticed someone on the left grandstand of the track hanging a Five-Star Red Flag on the railing.
Qin Miao was taken aback, then turned his head to look, only to see a female fan in a Mercedes team outfit holding a gimbal and filming him.
Upon seeing him look over, the fan happily jumped in place and waved at him.
The race hadn’t started yet, so Qin Miao had plenty of free time.
Considering how it wasn’t easy for someone to come over in such dangerous times, Qin Miao waved back at her, acknowledging her presence. But Qin Miao had a feeling he should have met her before, though he couldn’t immediately remember where.
This action by Qin Miao was also caught by the idle broadcaster.
Fei laughed and said, "Qin Miao is greeting a fan who came to support him on-site."
"Is this the first time since the pandemic that spectators have been allowed in the paddock?" Bing asked.
Zhou Haoran nodded, "That’s right, but they must continuously submit nucleic acid test reports from the past week, and any discrepancy means they can’t enter."
"No wonder there aren’t many people today," Fei added, "But I still want to remind our compatriots abroad, it’s best not to watch the race live; safety first."
But after saying this, Fei changed his tone, "Though that’s what I said, I really do envy her. I also want to watch the race live, and wave to Qin Miao."
Bing sighed, "Ah, it’s unlikely for us. If we really want to watch a race live, we’ll have to wait for the Chinese Grand Prix to resume."
The other two commentators also sighed in regret.
While the three commentators were talking, the drivers on the track had begun their formation lap.
The strategy for Qin Miao in this race was still different from his teammate Hamilton; he adopted the red-yellow one-stop strategy.
Honestly, ever since Qin Miao joined Mercedes, except in unexpected races, he has always used a one-stop strategy.
Soon, twenty cars were positioned on the grid spots.
Then the five red lights sequentially lit up, signaling the race was about to begin.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...
"The five red lights are out, the race has started!"
"Verstappen had a great start; though blocked by the two Mercedes covering all lines, he managed to align with Qin Miao side by side thanks to his excellent start!"
On the track, Qin Miao’s start was somewhat slow; his reaction time exceeded 0.2 seconds.
This was reflected on the track by Verstappen’s noticeably faster speed post-start than Qin Miao’s.
Fortunately, Hamilton helped Qin Miao defend against Verstappen, blocking Verstappen’s T1 entry line with the two Mercedes cars.
However, through to T1, Verstappen took the outside line, and Qin Miao dared not squeeze Verstappen out, thus leaving him some exit space.
Verstappen was indeed daring and meticulous. Despite the limited space that Qin Miao left, seemingly barely enough for a car to fit, he dared to insert his car right in.
Thanks to a wider exit line than Qin Miao’s, he managed to edge out in front of Qin Miao by half a car’s length at T1.
At T2, being a left turn, Qin Miao couldn’t keep up the speed to contend with Verstappen further.