CHAPTER 182: CHAPTER 119: FIVE RED LIGHTS ON_2

Qin Miao nodded knowingly.

Sui Wentao then said, "The car has already been checked in advance, and it’s in great shape. Now it’s up to you to perform."

Qin Miao gave him a thumbs-up, "Watch me!"

After sipping some tonic from the water bottle, Qin Miao donned all his gear.

Even though the sun is strong now and the racing suit will get hot, there’s less than 10 minutes until the race starts, so it won’t be hot for long. Moreover, Qin Miao noticed that Sui Wentao had tucked a red umbrella with the Prema team logo into the tire cart.

Once all the gear was on, Qin Miao jumped in place a bit and stretched his limbs, before getting into the car’s monocoque shell with Sui Wentao’s assistance.

After entering the racing car, Qin Miao locked the headrest, installed the steering wheel, and activated the car’s system. During the car system’s self-check, Qin Miao plugged his headphones into the built-in TR system of the car.

"Testing, testing, can you hear me?"

Frankie’s voice came through, "Yes, loud and clear."

"Roger that..."

After the routine check of the TR system’s status, Qin Miao looked up at the spectator stands above the pit area.

There, a graceful figure was watching him, and upon seeing Qin Miao look back, a bright smile immediately spread across her face.

Then, to Qin Miao’s somewhat stunned gaze, this girl made a big heart with her hands in front of everyone.

Qin Miao is quite introverted and naturally struggles with social anxiety.

If you ask someone like Qin Miao to perform such gestures in public, he’d die of embarrassment, and seeing his girlfriend do it for him, while touching, still made him instinctively curl his toes in embarrassment.

After a moment, Qin Miao gave Qimeng a thumbs-up, acknowledging her bold move.

Returning his focus, Qin Miao prepared to give his car a ’buff’.

Having completed the usual routine, Qin Miao felt he might encounter many surprises today, but absolutely no mechanical failures would cause him to withdraw from the race.

Sui Wentao, who’d been shading Qin Miao with an umbrella, clearly noticed his rituals but said nothing. After all, many drivers perform special ceremonies before the race to wish themselves good luck.

With Qin Miao’s ’buff’ in place, the distant five starting lights lit up.

At this moment, the lighting of the five red lights doesn’t signal the start of the race, but indicates all drivers must enter their cars within a minute, as the race is about to begin.

Only now did Qin Miao see Zhou Guanyu rushing over.

Fortunately, his gear was already on.

As Zhou Guanyu passed Qin Miao’s side, he turned his head for a glance at Qin Miao sitting in his racing car.

The two had no time to speak, but in their eyes, they exchanged a fierce sense of competitiveness.

The two often contested in simulators, frequently launching ’torpedo’ attacks at each other when provoked. (Here, it’s mainly Zhou upset and ’torpedoing’ Qin).

But this was indeed their first real-life competition.

Undeniably, they both acknowledged each other as their best friend in the racing paddock, but neither wanted to lose this friend-against-friend challenge.

Winning would allow them to boast more naturally in front of the other, with no rebuttal.

...

"Good morning, viewers! Welcome to Five-Star Sports’ live broadcast of the F2 main race at the 2020 Formula 1 Grand Prix in Austria! I’m Bing."

"And I’m Fei."

"I’m Zhou Haoran."

After the opening remarks, the three commentators got to the main topic:

Bing summarized, "After the fierce competition in yesterday’s qualifying round, Shanghai’s driver Zhou Guanyu secured pole position, while Hunan’s driver Qin Miao is second by a mere 0.18 seconds."

Fei: "Also because of the excellent performance of the two Chinese drivers in yesterday’s qualifying, a new history was created. This is the first time two Chinese drivers have secured pole and second place in F2 qualifying, breaking the record of Chinese drivers arriving at F2 and immediately taking second place in qualifiers; they’ve marked a breakthrough from zero to one."

Fei added: "The simultaneous appearance of two Chinese drivers on the F2 circuit was unprecedented in F2 history. So any achievements Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu get from now on will be new records for us."

Zhou Haoran said, "What’s most exciting is that both showed great dominance on the track. We can now hope for the Chinese drivers to claim F2 championships or even dare to dream they’ll enter higher racing tiers someday."

...

After the introductions, the hosts talked about the two drivers on track and their off-track relationships.

The director then switched the camera to the racetrack.

At this point, one of the five red lights on the track had gone out, leaving four still lit.

The meaning of the four red lights is actually a reminder for the team staff to quickly clear the track, as the race is about to start.

After the four lights came on, Sui Wentao shook hands with Qin Miao, saying, "The race is starting, we have to leave. Good luck!"

Qin Miao nodded, "Watch me."

During the time the staff withdrew, only three red lights remained. At this time, alongside the FIA officials, only a few team members were making final preparations on the track.

Soon the three lights turned into two, and at the sight of two lit red lights, the drivers started their F2 engines.

The roar of 22 engines echoed across the venue.

All team personnel had gradually left the track, leaving only the official FIA workers and Matthew, clad in FIA attire, standing by the trackside to inspect the cars and track.

As the last two red lights gradually went out, only Matthew remained on the track.

By now, Qin Miao was experiencing no nervousness whatsoever. Sitting in the car, as in countless times before, his mind was calm, emptied, leaving only racing knowledge.

It seemed as if he was born for this job.

The rear yellow flag waved, the five red lights turned green.

At the forefront, Zhou Guanyu and Qin Miao drove out of their grid positions in unison, starting the warm-up lap for the main race...

Throughout the warm-up lap, Qin Miao used every opportunity possible to scrub his tires, ensuring ample grip for the start of the race.

The temperature today was relatively high with favorable track temperatures, so Qin Miao didn’t scrub too aggressively. After all, starting with soft tires, he aimed to test how many laps he could run in this environment.

It also served as a preview for tomorrow’s sprint race, though the team calculated that based on Qin Miao’s tire wear, one set of softs could last the entire 28 laps of the sprint race. Yet, Qin Miao wanted to test the degradation of this set of softs under actual conditions.

Soon the warm-up lap ended, and Zhou Guanyu and Qin Miao pulled into their starting grids.

This time, Qin Miao’s stopping wasn’t perfect; there was about 10 centimeters between his tires and the white starting line.

But this distance wouldn’t substantially impact the start.

Qin Miao had practiced starts during practice sessions, so he was quite familiar with the upcoming operations.

After the F2 cars in the rear grid entered their starting positions and the safety car parked at the tail end, the F2 race was about to begin.

Soon, at the tail end, the event steward waved his green flag; the five red lights sequentially lit up.

(No extra update today...)