CHAPTER 192: CHAPTER 123: SLICING THROUGH THE FIELD

Nonetheless, before exiting the corner, Qin Miao still tried to get as close as possible to the left side, taking a wider exit line.

By doing so, Qin Miao mainly aimed to gain a faster relative speed compared to Long Jia De, who was squeezed towards the inside line, on the upcoming straight.

Additionally, after exiting the corner, Qin Miao can accelerate using Long Jia De’s slipstream, giving him a chance to attack Long Jia De on the straight before entering T3.

Exiting T1, with superior tire grip and better corner exit control compared to Long Jia De, Qin Miao achieved a relative speed advantage of nearly 10 km/h.

However, since Qin Miao took a wider line when entering the corner, Long Jia De opened up a gap of at least 0.3 seconds with Qin Miao during the exit phase.

Fortunately, Qin Miao’s soft tires significantly outperform Long Jia De’s hard tires in terms of grip and acceleration, continuously narrowing the distance between the two. Based on the current speed, Qin Miao could complete the move before entering T3.

But upon entering T2, knowing his speed couldn’t match Qin Miao’s, Long Jia De took an outer line for defense.

While taking the outer line in T2 would inevitably allow Qin Miao to complete the move earlier during the T2 phase, after entering T3, he would have the inner line advantage, enabling a defensive maneuver with late braking.

However, he somewhat overestimated his ability to handle distances and underestimated Qin Miao’s tire grip and vehicle control skills.

Both entered the corner one after another. Qin Miao knew the opponent was preparing for late braking, so he simply didn’t cut the corner, leaving the inside line to the opponent, and instead took the outer line again to accelerate using a wider path.

This maneuver became even smoother here than in T1.

At this point, Qin Miao gained an advantage of over half a car length in T2, so although Long Jia De held the inside line and blocked the optimal exit line with late braking, after exiting the corner, he briefly re-overtook Qin Miao by two-thirds of a car length.

However, on the upcoming straight, Qin Miao reclaimed the advantage using his soft tires and faster relative speed, completing the overtake before entering T4.

So far, the sprint race has only covered three corners, and Qin Miao has already overtaken three cars, currently ranking fifth.

This scene of furious overtaking indeed left the three commentators from Five-Star Sports in great shock.

Besides them, there are also viewers watching the F2 race through Five-Star Sports.

Previously, they hardly paid attention to F2 races, but because Qin Miao’s victory in yesterday’s F2 main race hit the top trending on major social platforms, many domestic viewers suddenly became interested in F2.

Moreover, the starting time of this F2 sprint race coincided exactly with the beginning of the F1 main race, so those prepared to watch the F1 main event on TV understandably considered this race an appetizer before F1.

However, for many domestic racing fans, this appetizer turned out somewhat tough, as Qin Miao’s performance exceeded everyone’s imagination and expectations.

[What the heck? Qin Miao’s long-distance power is one thing, but his overtaking ability is also this fierce?]

[Love this line from a CS: GO player: Huh?]

[Just ran three corners, and overtook three cars, where did this monster come from?]

[Is this a Chinese driver? Am I freaking dreaming?]

[Qin Miao! My superman!]

[Go, Qin!]

...

Aside from these caring compatriots, quite a few others were closely watching Qin Miao’s performance today.

If yesterday’s main race gained attention only from Binotto, who knows Qin Miao well, then after Qin Miao completed the race with a dominant performance yesterday, Mercedes’ Toto and Red Bull’s Horner, the team leaders of two major teams, also started to take interest in this emerging young talent.

They even took the time to watch this sprint race.

Of course, since Qin Miao hails from Ferrari’s youth training, they were more in the mood of observing a talented youth cultivated by a rival.

On the track, due to the battle with Long Jia De, Qin Miao lost quite a bit of speed, allowing the four drivers ahead to pull away slightly.

However, the distance isn’t too far; the top two are only 0.8 seconds away from Qin Miao, though Drogovich in first and Dretraz in second have already moved ahead without engaging in battles.

Qin Miao wasn’t too anxious about it.

After all, he knew even while conserving tires, he ran faster than them. As long as he overtakes the two in front, he can start gradually chasing the first and second.

Lap 1 ended and Mazepin had to pit to replace his car’s nose wing due to damage, while French driver Alers also pitted in the same lap for the same issue.

Returning to T1, Qin Miao handled the T10 section better than Ticktum, plus with the help of Qin Miao’s soft tires, coming out of the corner he still stayed 0.4 seconds behind Ticktum but had already taken the inside route by the end of the full straight from the start.

If he continues along this route, Qin Miao can brake late in T1 to overtake Ticktum in the corner.

The director wisely switched the camera to focus on Qin Miao, who is the only driver using soft tires today.

"Qin Miao! Inside line!" Bing suddenly became inexplicably excited upon seeing this scene.