CHAPTER 176: CHAPTER 117: EMERGENCE OF DOMINANCE (PART 2)

In the pit wall, Roxin and Frankie were staring at the telemetry data from Qin Miao’s seven laps, falling into silence.

Mick had exited the pit lane faster than Qin Miao, so by the time Qin Miao returned, Mick had already completed his hard tire test and began another round of testing, which means they had Mick’s data at this point.

And the data showed that Qin Miao’s fuel consumption was 7% less than Mick’s, and tire wear was 20% less than Mick’s...

If these numbers could be achieved by driving conservatively, then the frightening data showing Qin Miao being 0.3 seconds faster per lap than Mick while having similar wear levels clearly drew a line between genius and ordinary in front of the two looking at the data.

When such data emerges in a teammate comparison, we usually call it:

Dominating.

In the subsequent soft tire test, Qin Miao became even faster, breaking his personal lap record on the first lap, and after completing seven laps, reached a top speed of 1:15:919.

However, after Qin Miao set this lap time, it was quickly surpassed, which is normal because Qin Miao was using a race pace with long-distance consideration on this set of tires, and the fuel in his car was still at least 50%, so expecting faster times would be unrealistic.

The good news was that Qin Miao completed all of his long-distance tests for the day, allowing Frankie to collect Qin Miao’s tire wear data on this track and begin formulating tire strategies for the sprint and main races in the next two days.

At the same time, Qin Miao returned to the garage, drained some fuel from his car, leaving only enough for five laps, and was sent out for flying laps.

Qin Miao didn’t run for long because, due to traffic and timing, he only completed two flying laps before the practice session ended. On the first flying lap, Qin Miao clocked in at 1:14:295.

In the subsequent flying lap, a slower car blocked him, and Qin Miao knew that being blocked cost him at least 0.2 seconds. Pushing to the limit already, he realized that with this loss, it was impossible to break his fastest lap, so he gave up and slowly brought the car back to the pits.

And in the TR, he warmly greeted the Russian driver named Mazepin, who blocked him, in Chinese.

"Did a dog eat your fucking eyes? If you don’t need your eyes, you can donate them to someone who does! If you can’t drive, go home and play with your damned toys. Such a big car coming from behind, and you can’t see it? Don’t fucking let me catch you. If I catch you, I’ll rip your mirrors to pieces, you stupid QNM bastard!"

It is worth mentioning that since Qin Miao said this in Chinese, no one understood it, and of course, the director didn’t broadcast this part either.

The first practice session of the 2020 F2 season ended after Qin Miao returned to the pits, and Qin Miao secured the top spot with a 1:14:295 lap time.

Yuki Tsunoda was second, 0.91 seconds slower than Qin Miao.

Zhou Guanyu was third, a full second slower than Qin Miao.

As for Qin Miao’s teammate Mick... he ranked nineteenth, 2.5 seconds slower than Qin Miao...

However, this was just a practice session, and lap times can be entertaining to watch but are generally of little reference value.

After the practice session, the drivers and staff from various F2 teams packed up their gear and left the pits.

Next up was the first practice session for F1, and they couldn’t block the entrance to the F1 team’s pit rooms, which were crucial for the main event of this Grand Prix.

Qin Miao and his crew had no time to watch the F1 race. After packing up quickly and returning to their team’s pit room, Prema’s two crews gathered for a meeting.

Roxin didn’t mention anything about Mick’s car being slow, but simply explained the points to be noted for qualifying to the crew members, and encouraged them.

After a brief pep talk, Qin Miao and his crew returned to their pit room to inspect the car.

This inspection naturally found no issues, as while Qin Miao drove fast, his driving style was smooth and did not wear the car hard, contributing to minimal wear from the practice session.

During the F1 practice session, Qin Miao took a rest, replenished some water, and even got a chance to play some games, so time quickly advanced to the F2 qualifying session.

The same procedure followed, pushing the car, carrying tires, and hauling equipment to the pit room entrance to prepare.

After a tense preparation period, the qualifying start time approached.

Although it was Friday and morning work was still necessary, Qin Miao’s mother took the rare opportunity to take a day off. Recalling the method Qimeng taught her to connect the VPN, she opened the F2 official website and adjusted to the live streaming interface.

Though she usually left her son completely to his own devices, today was his first race, so no matter what, she couldn’t miss this chance.

Soon enough, among numerous English initials, she found Qin Miao’s name. After all, the three pinyin letters QIN stand out among a bunch of foreign name initials.

...

Meanwhile, the well-known Five-Star Sports among F1 fan communities today uncharacteristically began their live stream early.

However, contrary to the norm, they started not with the F1 intro trailer, but with the F2 one.