This was not Hamilton deliberately slowing down his pace to allow Qin Miao to catch up. Even though Hamilton had enough time to catch up to Verstappen and overtake him, this is a race. Even at his peak, Hamilton wouldn’t arrogantly believe he could take first while helping Qin Miao to secure second in an F1 race.
Although Qin Miao had secretly done this sort of thing in F2, that was just F2 after all.
Qin Miao being able to keep up with Hamilton’s pace was purely due to his own strength being strong enough. Plus, the team had just informed Qin Miao that his tire degradation curve was slower than expected, allowing Qin Miao to slightly increase his speed, and after knowing Hamilton had pitted, Qin Miao had charged up his ERS for a long time, using it all at this moment.
Although there actually seemed to be no need for Qin Miao to chase down, since no one in front could be reached and no one behind could catch up, he could just coast for the last few laps.
But Qin Miao still had some pursuit; what if he set the fastest lap?
Of course, Qin Miao ultimately didn’t refresh the fastest lap of the race, and he only followed behind Hamilton for three laps before being left behind when his ERS energy reserve was depleted.
However, during these three laps, Qin Miao managed to cut off 0.2 seconds per lap compared to normal driving states.
On the fifty-fifth lap, with 11 laps remaining in the race, after just passing the starting straight, Hamilton was within one second behind Verstappen.
With tires that were much newer than Verstappen’s, catching up in such a short time wasn’t a surprising feat.
To be honest, when this scene appeared in front of Verstappen and the Red Bull strategy group, the staff of Red Bull’s strategy group looked pale, but then a little relieved. Despite the fact that the championship position eventually wasn’t in their hands, getting second was originally the best result they could achieve without changing tactics.
The only thing that made them a bit uncomfortable was the feeling of having secured first place only to then lose it. The pit stop by Mercedes was a considerable blow to Red Bull’s morale.
If it were under normal circumstances, commentators Bing, Fei, and Brother Ran would hope to see Verstappen make some achievements in this race.
Ideally, they wanted Verstappen to snatch the championship from Hamilton’s hands, just like the Red Bull team staff hoped.
After all, Hamilton and Mercedes had dominated the paddock for too long, and everyone wanted to see a hero who could dethrone the dragon.
Simply put, they wished to see the mighty fall from grace. Thɪs chapter is updated by novelꞁire.net
But this year, the attitudes of the three commentators were different. In the past, when they saw Mercedes, all they saw was an incredibly strong team, with powerful technical prowess, dominating the paddock for six long years.
Mercedes was the team in the entire paddock that valued the Chinese driver Qin Miao the most.
From Qin Miao’s perspective, Mercedes was the one recognizing and nurturing his potential and talent.
Even domestic fans who didn’t have a great impression of Mercedes before now felt that the Mercedes logo appeared more dignified and refined.
So now seeing Hamilton closing in on Verstappen, they said, "Mercedes’ pit stop strategy is indeed brilliant, directly predicting Red Bull’s prediction."
"One step ahead, every step ahead."
"Mercedes’ strategy team really taught Red Bull a lesson."
"Indeed, Red Bull’s strategy team still has a lot to learn."
What followed was a scene everyone could predict: Hamilton began to launch an attack on Verstappen.
Despite knowing that his tire condition was worse than Hamilton’s, Verstappen still didn’t want to give up the race win already in his grasp.
He began to fiercely resist Hamilton’s attack.
Simply put, he started his desperate struggle.
Hamilton, naturally, wouldn’t be courteous to Verstappen. Once in Verstappen’s DRS zone, the two engaged in a relentless battle, neither willing to give an inch.
If Qin Miao’s duel with Verstappen was a relatively restrained contest between two drivers, where despite the significant actions, they left some room for each other within the permissible limits of the rules, ensuring no loss of significant time as long as the other was willing to yield.
Then Hamilton’s clash with Verstappen was a brutal hand-to-hand combat, beating each other bloody in a life-and-death struggle.
Pulling eyes out and tugging hair—these terms couldn’t adequately describe the relationship between them; in the arena, they were so hostile, wishing they could yank each other’s entrails out and stomp on them.
Their duel grabbed the attention of the broadcasters, commentators, and audiences.
But most people didn’t notice that, quietly, Qin Miao had gone from being gradually left behind by the two to matching their pace, and even after another lap, as their duel reached its climax, Qin Miao began rapidly closing the gap to them.
This was mainly because once the battle ensued, their speed was much slower than when driving normally.
On the fifty-eighth lap, despite Verstappen doing his utmost to defend, Hamilton’s tire advantage was just too great.
Being able to defend against Hamilton on worn tires for three laps was already the best Verstappen could do.
So ultimately, due to Verstappen getting a little too anxious on the throttle coming out of a corner, affecting his exit speed, Hamilton successfully reclaimed his championship position from Verstappen.