On lap 28, Hamilton chose to pit. At the same time, Ferrari's Leclerc also chose to pit to change tires after discovering Qin Miao's terrifying pursuit speed.
The drivers behind Qin Miao also chose to pit one after another at this time.
The purpose of their stop at this time was very clear: two stops.
The DRS train had just disbanded after Hamilton came out of the pit area. Originally, Verstappen's new medium tires were faster than Hamilton's old soft tires, but he had no choice but to have a DRS train in front of him.
Therefore, Hamilton happened to fall in front of Verstappen, who was disgusted by the DRS train.
On the twenty-ninth lap, all drivers on the track completed a pit stop, and the approximate rankings are as follows:
P1: Qin Miao
P2: Hamilton +5.724
P3: Verstappen +7.791
P4: Leclerc +17.247
P5：Kimi+24.666
P6: Ricciardo +26.286
P7: Russell +28.730
P8: Perez +29.130
…
After Hamilton and Verstappen pitted to change tires, Qin Miao was not as fast as them.
But at least Qin Miao still has five seconds of capital to support him here, so Qin Miao can still run his own pace in a short period of time.
On the 32nd lap, Qin Miao was finally caught up by Hamilton. Faced with his teammate Qin Miao, he did not take the initiative to give up the car, but faced Hamilton's attack on the DRS straight on the 33rd lap, Qin Miao did not. Defense.
Hamilton directly passed him from inside.
The lead position changed hands.
At this time, Verstappen was behind Qin Miao, and he was exactly 2 seconds away from Qin Miao.
Looking at the familiar taillights of the No. 66 Mercedes car in front of him, Verstappen said MMP in his heart, which he really hated.
But things have happened, and Verstappen can only complain a few words at most. Other than that, he can't change anything. All he can do is maintain his own rhythm, and get close to and surpass Qin in the next game. Miao.
After Qin Miao was overtaken by Hamilton without losing speed, he followed Hamilton and sucked in the wake and DRS for two laps. After two laps, he was pulled away by one second.
On lap 37, Verstappen also caught up within one second behind Qin Miao.
The reason why it took one more lap than normal was mainly because Verstappen needed to recharge his car during this time.
Verstappen, who has experienced Qin Miao's defensive ability, clearly knows that it is difficult for him to surpass Qin Miao wheel-to-wheel in normal curves.
All joking aside, if Verstappen is given a car with the same performance as Qin Miao, and without the support of DRS, Verstappen has no confidence that he can break through Qin Miao's defense.
Moreover, the Catalunya Circuit is a track where it is difficult to overtake. If he does not want to waste too much time fighting with Qin Miao, Verstappen can only rely on absolute power in the DRS area. The speed surpassed Qin Miao with a crushing speed.
So Verstappen came behind Qin Miao and began to judge the distance between the two cars. He needed to control the gap between the two cars within 0.4 seconds, so that on the straightaway, Verstappen The DRS and wake effects are the best, and the distance between the two cars is not too far and the speed will not increase, but too much time is wasted on approaching the car in front.
Qin Miao naturally noticed Verstappen behind him and roughly judged his thoughts by looking at his movements.
Qin Miao was also prepared for this. While following Hamilton, Qin Miao was charging his car. At this time, the power reserve of his car was close to 95%.
When Hamilton saw the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen come to a second, not only did he not feel nervous for Qin Miao, but he felt an indescribable sense of security that miraculously lingered in Hamilton's heart.
Hamilton felt that Qin Miao could help him lock down Verstappen for at least two laps.
Of course, the trust that Hamilton and the Mercedes team staff have in Qin Miao is inseparable from Qin Miao's excellent performance in these games.
At this time, the director also focused the camera on these two cars.
"Verstappen has caught up with Qin Miao for 0.4 seconds. Verstappen is very fast." Fei Ge said after seeing the current scene.
Brother Bing added: "Mercedes will definitely let Qin Miao, who stopped twice, come to defend Verstappen. Without further ado, he only needs to stop Verstappen for two laps. Hamilton will win this game." The position is secure.”
It is worth mentioning that after seeing Qin Miao pitting so early and changing to medium tires, the three commentators directly concluded that Qin Miao would use a two-stop tactic in this race.
After all, Qin Miao still had two sets of new soft tires in his tire reserve that were useless, so it was understandable that they would make this judgment.
"How is the condition of my tires?" Qin Miao asked in the team's TR while briefly but frequently looking at his rearview mirror to determine the position of Verstappen's car.
"There is three laps more margin than expected." Frankie said with emotion after hearing Qin Miao's question.
Yes, after so many laps of tire protection, Qin Miao's tire degradation was far less than the team's strategy team calculated. After Qin Miao entered the tire protection state, the durability of the medium tire was better than that of the hard tire.
Even though no one was racing on hard tires at the moment...
The data given by French is that Qin Miao can run three more laps after completing the entire race. After that, Qin Miao's medium tires will enter the cliff point of the tires and the lap speed will begin to decline rapidly.
After confirming the condition of his tires, Qin Miao was confident that he could stop Verstappen for a few more laps.
Soon, on lap 38, at the end of the second timing section, in the DRS area between T9 and T10, Verstappen launched a tentative attack on Qin Miao.
It can be said to be a DRS area, but the distance of this straight line is simply not enough for current F1 cars to fully unleash their potential for overtaking.
The current F1 car is too long and too wide. Unless the car in front of T9 goes too far when exiting the corner, or there is a big performance gap between the two cars, the car behind will not be able to get as much in the DRS zone here. The only advantage is to shorten the distance to the car in front.
Verstappen also knew this, so he made no substantial offensive moves. He just deliberately tapped the inside when entering the corner and applied a late brake that was not too late.
Although everyone knows that this is just a tentative attack, if the target they need to defend makes such a pressure move, the average driver will feel a little nervous after seeing it, and his attention will shift more to the rear body. , to prevent him from suddenly surpassing himself in an unexpected place.
But Qin Miao actually feels better. After all, he is a defensive gate with full defense. He naturally knows the specific meaning of Verstappen's actions. Qin Miao's heart will not be the same even if he knows that the opponent is feinting a shot. Too much pressure and not even any defensive moves.
Looking at Qin Miao's motionless driving style in front of him, Verstappen also sighed inwardly.
If Toto was not so determined at the beginning, and Horner and Marco had no stereotypes about Chinese people, and had communicated more with Qin Miao to enhance their mutual understanding, and just had a meal together if nothing happened, then Qin Miao would have been very happy at this time. Maybe they are his teammates.
Not only did he not have to face Qin Miao's insurmountable wall of sighs, he also had a No. 2 driver who was willing to pay for him, and Qin Miao could also help him contain Hamilton.
Kill three birds with one stone.
After thinking of that scene, Verstappen even felt as if he was reading a cool article, but Verstappen soon came back to his senses and stopped thinking about it.
He calmed down and followed Qin Miao all the way to the starting straight.
Verstappen ran a bit conservatively in the third time period and kept sucking Qin Miao's wake behind him.
Verstappen suddenly started releasing ERS power when he entered the main straight. After passing the DRS monitoring point, he turned on DRS and absorbed Qin Miao's wake.
Facing Verstappen's attack, Qin Miao would definitely not be able to maintain his rhythm as if he was being overtaken by Hamilton.
So Qin Miao started painting dragons like crazy.
After all, you have not entered the braking zone yet, so drawing a dragon before entering the braking zone is not considered a violation.
While Qin Miao was drawing the dragon, he did not forget to keep an eye on the distance between Verstappen and his car, because Qin Miao knew that Verstappen might hit him on the inside or outside at any time.
On the one hand, I have to avoid hitting Verstappen who is taking the lead when drawing the dragon, and on the other hand, I have to avoid being taken by Verstappen on the inside.
Qin Miao knows that the T1 position of the Catalunya Circuit is not a turning corner with heavy braking, so it is very difficult to use the intersection line to overtake here. As long as he holds the inside line, Verstappen's attack will be considered a failure. .
Verstappen also knew this, so when following Qin Miao, who painted a dragon, his car was closer to the right.
The two cars were gradually approaching at a speed of five kilometers per hour, and finally they were about to meet about 100 meters away from the braking point of T1.
I don't know if it was a coincidence or Qin Miao's deliberate preparation, but this time happened to be when Qin Miao finished drawing the dragon on the left and started drawing the dragon on the right.
Verstappen only realized after he was almost at the braking point. If he continued to follow Qin Miao's pace, he would definitely not be able to squeeze into Qin Miao's inside line when the two cars met.
So Verstappen eagerly increased the angle of his right turn, hoping to squeeze into Qin Miao's inside lane before Qin Miao closed the door.
It's a pity that Qin Miao also thought of this.
If the angle of Verstappen's right turn is too large, the speed of the car will be affected to a certain extent, so the original closing rate of 5 kilometers per hour between Verstappen and Qin Miao began to decrease.
When Verstappen appeared on the inside early, he failed to take the lead as he expected.
During this period, Qin Miao only left a space for Verstappen to see the front of the track, but it was not enough for his car to pass.
Seeing this, Verstappen realized that his attack had failed, and he did not squeeze in. The race was still long, and he could always find a chance to surpass Qin Miao.
Verstappen simply returned to the outside line. Although his speed was not as fast as when he was sucking Qin Miao's wake, he was gradually surpassing Qin Miao.
However, since the inside line was lost, Verstappen's overtaking was doomed to fail.
After passing the braking point, Qin Miao observed the position of Verstappen's car while braking. Qin Miao walked as much track width as he gave himself.
Make your turn as wide as possible.
Although it may appear that Qin Miao squeezed Verstappen over, in fact it was just a normal line change during braking.
After all, Qin Miao is following Verstappen's rhythm.
He braked late to block Verstappen's best entry line, and then passed the apex with his car's front in front, leaving no room on the track for Verstappen to exit the corner.
A textbook defensive finish.
If Verstappen had encountered Qin Miao's defensive moves in the past, he would have started cursing among the team's TR immediately. However, after understanding Qin Miao's defensive nature, Verstappen became more honest and silently slowed down. Exiting rhythm.
You can't afford to mess with him. Qin Miao may look a little shy on the outside, but on the track, this person really dares to play with him.
However, it was a blessing in disguise. Because Verstappen took the initiative to give in, he did not lose much rhythm when he failed to overtake this time. After exiting the corner, he only fell 0.7 seconds behind Qin Miao and still stayed with Qin Miao. in the DRS area.
The multi-turn area in the first timing section is the advantageous area of the Mercedes car. Although Qin Miao's tire-protecting running method was only shortened by Verstappen by 0.1 seconds.
After finishing the DRS zone in the second timing period, Verstappen chased for another 0.2 seconds and fell 0.4 seconds behind Qin Miao.
Although Verstappen still put pressure on Qin Miao during this period of DRS, Qin Miao just ignored it.
The starting straight on lap 39.
Verstappen once again attacked Qin Miao. This time Verstappen got closer. After exiting the corner, he was 0.2 seconds behind Qin Miao.
If you look at it from the wrong angle, you will have the illusion that Verstappen's front nose is touching the rear diffuser of Qin Miao's car.
At this time, the skin at the junction of Verstappen's gloves and fire-proof suit could feel the hot exhaust gas emitted from the exhaust pipe of Qin Miao's racing car.
Qin Miao didn't draw dragons this time. Although the dragon drawings he just made were not illegal, they were a bit large and frequent. He had already been warned once by the competition committee for dangerous driving.
But it's not like Qin Miao can't defend Verstappen.
The 39th lap of the starting straight had just entered the DRS area. Qin Miao stared at his rearview mirror, leaving a large area of track space inside to Verstappen, waiting for him to tap the inside.
Just after 1/4 of the start straight, Verstappen was only 0.1 seconds behind Qin Miao, and at this time Verstappen also suddenly took the lead on the inside.
Wanting to catch Qin Miao by surprise, Qin Miao didn't even look at the track. Qin Miao, who had been keeping a close eye on Verstappen's car, caught up with Verstappen as soon as he was about to take the inside tap.
Qin Miao's reaction speed was much faster now than when he started.
Anyway, Verstappen didn't take the lead to pass Qin Miao at this time, and Qin Miao's first defensive line change was useless. No one could find fault with his line change this time.
But what Verstappen didn't expect was that Qin Miao and himself would react so resolutely and quickly to change lanes simultaneously. The most important thing was that the gap between the two was too small, only 0.1 seconds.
So unexpectedly and reasonably, the two cars collided.
ps. Sorry, there are only four thousand today... (End of this chapter)
