CHAPTER 552: CHAPTER 240: HENGELO MISSILE BASE (RED BULL SPECIAL EDITION)

It is worth mentioning that while the other drivers were settled on the starting grid, Alfa Romeo’s Giovinazzi chose to pit and switch to medium tires.

Through TR, it can be known that he is betting by switching to medium tires.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with his approach, and the worst consequence is just starting from the pit lane.

For Alfa Romeo, which has nothing to lose, it’s better to take a big gamble like Giovinazzi is doing now rather than waiting to die.

However, all the commentators think Giovinazzi is taking too big of a gamble this time.

"Today’s race is going to be challenging for Qin Miao." On the eve of the race, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports chatted with their colleagues in their seats.

"That’s right, overtaking on the Hengelo track is already difficult, and now with the rain, overtaking without DRS is even tougher, especially since Verstappen and Perez are in front of Qin Miao.

It’s believed that during the race, Verstappen and Perez will defend Qin Miao thoroughly. It will be very hard for him to overtake these two, and he can only rely on the period after the rain stops during the race to switch to slick tires."

"Let’s hope nothing unexpected happens at the start of the race, just a steady start..."

Qin Miao now is not the controversial unknown rookie he was when he just entered F1. After half a season of honing, Qin Miao’s skills have matured a lot, and both the audience and commentators in the paddock have a much deeper understanding of him. They are familiar with his driving style and characteristics and know his weaknesses.

Thus, the three commentators firmly supporting Qin Miao are also starting to worry about his performance in the rain.

And it’s not just them; many fans who like Qin Miao are also worried, including Qin Miao himself.

Although the drizzle in the sky is still light, the water on the track is increasing over time.

Moreover, the tires of the car are quickly losing temperature due to the rain. Although the semi-rain tires of F1 cars do not have high requirements for track and tire temperatures, once the temperature reaches the critical point, skidding is inevitable.

Therefore, after the car stopped, Qin Miao silently prayed the drivers behind him would quickly stop in their positions.

Even so, Qin Miao still waited on the track for about half a minute before the cars behind him gradually stopped.

As the medical car at the back came to a halt, the green flag waved in the drizzle, and five red lights lit up one after another.

Qin Miao squinted his eyes, gently pressed the accelerator, keeping the car’s RPM around 7200 per minute. Starting in the rain is different from a dry start as the grip is not as strong, so naturally, the RPM shouldn’t be too high at the start; otherwise, the rear wheels will slip.

For an F1 driver, if the rear wheels slip at the start, the starting position could easily drop by more than three spots.

Even though Qin Miao is not skilled in wet races, he does have a knack for starting, at least not making mistakes when taking off.

As the fifth red light lit up, Qin Miao’s focus reached its peak, his eyes locked onto that hint of red.

As soon as the red disappeared, Qin Miao abruptly released the clutch button on his car.

The rear wheels started instantly, and the issue Qin Miao feared—rear-wheel slip—did not occur, as he completed a perfect launch start.

But Qin Miao, being somewhat agitated due to the rain, forgot that Reyes and others would secretly heat up the ground temperature at the four tire spots of their starting positions in the rain.

This is something every team and their engineers do during wet starts, so Reyes assumed Qin Miao knew this and didn’t explicitly mention it.

But because the sky had been gloomy since the morning, Qin Miao was in a bit of a bad mood and worried, thus forgetting this when the race started.

So his engine’s RPM was not too high at the start but too low.

Right after the start, it was clear that Norris quickly closed in on Qin Miao from behind.

Meanwhile, Verstappen in front of Qin Miao had a decent start, not as fast as Hamilton but much faster than his teammate Perez, quickly threading his way behind Hamilton and ahead of his teammate Perez.

On the other side, Qin Miao noticed Verstappen leaving him a clean racing line and an aggressively approaching Norris behind him.

To defend against Norris’s attack, Qin Miao decisively moved to the middle line of the track, leaving only the inside dirty side of the track for Norris to take.

Meanwhile, Perez in front was blocked by his teammate Verstappen, and with Qin Miao having the intention of blocking him behind Verstappen, Perez, who was slightly faster at the start, forced his way directly in front of Qin Miao right after the start.

Seeing Perez, who cut in from the outside in front, Qin Miao reluctantly eased off the throttle to avoid a collision.

But because of this slight easing off the throttle, Norris, who was originally just closing in on Qin Miao at a steady pace, overtook Qin Miao from the outside and went straight for Perez.

Witnessing this, Qin Miao was nearly gnashing his teeth, because his start this time was slow, and not only did he fail to hold his position against Norris’s attack, but Perez also managed to get ahead of him.