CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 51: QUALIFYING RACE

However, Qin Miao is currently driving a car that is not a professional race car, so his dashboard does not have telemetry data, and he doesn’t know how he performed in this lap.

But Qin Miao knows that there were a few turns where he didn’t push to the limit, and on the long straight, his braking point was earlier than the optimal point. If he goes all out, Qin Miao feels there’s at least a second to shave off his time.

And having completed this lap, aside from the feeling that this AMG’s downforce is much weaker compared to the F4 he’s driven before, causing some inadequacy in cornering precision, everything else he is quite accustomed to.

After all, he is very familiar with this car now and operates it with ease.

And once again returning to the track, Qin Miao feels an indescribable thrill in his heart.

This feeling is always so addictive.

But just as Qin Miao was about to strike while the iron is hot, he felt someone nudging his arm.

Having just experienced the GT3 two days ago, Qin Miao clearly remembered the driver who chauffeured him for lap time back then saying: if you can’t take it, don’t shout as he can’t hear, just tap his arm if it gets unbearable.

Turning his head, Qin Miao saw through the helmet visor Yu Jialiang’s somewhat pale face.

Qin Miao was taken aback and quickly realized, is this guy carsick?

Originally, with the pedal to the metal ready to tackle the next flying lap, Qin Miao loosened the pedal immediately and slowed down to the side.

After turning off the noise-canceling feature of the headphones, Qin Miao asked with concern: "What’s wrong?"

The other party took a deep breath, and the initially pale complexion visibly returned to a rosy hue, even becoming slightly flushed.

Yu Jialiang had the intention to get out after Qin Miao completed the first flying lap; Qin Miao’s driving style was completely different from what he had expected.

Initially, Yu Jialiang just thought Qin Miao was here to experience the race like him, with average skills.

But really getting onto the track, the extremely aggressive driving style and sharp cornering lines had him scared out of his wits.

Especially that hard braking on the rear straight, from 280 km/h to 60 km/h in 3 seconds, gave him a good scare with no psychological preparation.

During the time Qin Miao asked what was wrong, Yu Jialiang had other thoughts.

Yu Jialiang and his three friends had bet, but this bet changed because of Qin Miao’s presence.

Originally, they intended for the four of them to each have a car and run a race on the track, but now with Qin Miao taking up a car spot, there weren’t enough cars.

With one car short, someone suggested that the worst driver Yu Jialiang should join Qin Miao’s car.

Anyway, with his driving skills, even if he drove a car himself, he’d just be a back-marker, so he might as well bet on the possibility that Qin Miao’s final performance would represent his score.

When Yu Jialiang just got in Qin Miao’s car, he asked if Qin could drive.

At that time, Qin Miao said it was his third time on track, and Yu Jialiang was already mentally prepared to lose the bet with a big loss.

But he never imagined, Qin Miao would pull off such a trick.

Now that Qin Miao’s speed has slowed down, Yu Jialiang’s thinking capability has also returned.

Soon, Yu Jialiang had the confidence to win this bet.

With Qin Miao’s skills, wouldn’t those three guys be left in the dust, unable to see his tail lights during the actual race?

Yu Jialiang felt a peculiar sense of losing and regaining, like suddenly drinking a bottle of iced cola in an unbearably hot summer.

From the crown of his head to his toenails, he felt refreshed.

"It’s nothing, just wasn’t mentally prepared and got a bit scared, shall we continue?" Yu Jialiang’s tone even carried a bit of flattery.

Qin Miao was speechless, he had a decent exit from T16, was ready to strike while the iron is hot for another flying lap, and you interrupted me, now you’re saying nothing’s wrong...

Rich people are really hard to serve...

Shaking his head, Qin Miao could only continue to accelerate, pinching his nose, muttering bad luck while doing another warm-up lap.

Two minutes later, Qin Miao came again to T16.

This time at T16, Qin Miao’s approach was still stable, the speed after exiting the corner was good, even slightly faster than the first flying lap.

The second flying lap was also not full throttle, as for Qin Miao now, the most important thing was to steadily complete three valid flying laps first, and then attempt a fastest lap to try and chase the top three positions.

In the second flying lap, Qin Miao accidentally brushed purple in three sectors, improving his time by 0.2 seconds compared to the previous flying lap.

In the third flying lap, Qin Miao brushed purple in the first two sectors, but in the third sector met a slow car on the back straight, and since the other party didn’t give way, he had to brake early to avoid it, ruining this lap’s time.

However, by "ruined" it means Qin Miao’s first two purple-white sectors were acknowledged, and to the organizers, Qin Miao’s third effective flying lap was completed.

Qin Miao’s qualifying position was effectively secured.

Through the headphones, confirming all three flying laps were valid with him currently temporarily in first, Qin Miao started to explore the limits of this AMG GT.

In some corners where he hadn’t dared to open the throttle early, Qin Miao now dared to, with exit speed distinctly higher, more aggressive cornering lines, and the tire squeal more pronounced.

Yu Jialiang noticed in the first three flying laps, Qin Miao’s steering wheel was very stable when exiting corners, with almost no correction needed.

After finishing three flying laps, Qin Miao often corrected his steering when exiting corners, and the G-force during cornering noticeably increased, with the car’s body shaking more violently.

Fortunately, Qin Miao’s stability in the first three flying laps gave Yu Jialiang enough confidence and sense of security, preventing him from getting overly nervous again.

Qin Miao didn’t know how the all-out lap times behind those were, but he was having a great time driving regardless.

When Qin Miao finished the last flying lap, the headphones had the engineer’s reminder: "Qualifying has ended, you can return to the pits, your position is P2, congrats."

Qin Miao was somewhat surprised to get this position, although no professional drivers seemed to be participating, among these wealthy individuals who presumably drive race cars frequently, only one was faster than him, which Qin Miao hadn’t expected.

Slowing down the car, after leisurely touring around Shanghai once more, Qin Miao entered the pits with a faint smile on his face.

After all, as a young person, no matter how one could pretend before qualifying started, after getting the good result, the expression on one’s face couldn’t be held back.

After qualifying ended, Qin Miao happily returned to the paddock.

He was the first to return. He parked the car outside the pit, then reversed into a parking spot, and Yu Jialiang on the passenger side couldn’t wait to get out of the car.

He wasn’t rushing to find a trash can to gag, but rather dashed to the engineers’ workspace, grabbed the engineer providing technical support for Qin Miao, and asked, "How did Qin Miao do?"

The other answered honestly, "2 minutes, 12 seconds, 036 milliseconds, P2."

Upon hearing this, Yu Jialiang beamed with joy, "Hahaha, this is solid, just wait for the main race to see how those three show-offs get cocky."

After laughing, he seemed to realize something, then walked over to Qin Miao, who was just unbuckling his seatbelt and preparing to get out of the car.

"Qin Miao, you’re amazing!" Yet Yu Jialiang shifted his tone, "We’re friends now, right?"

Qin Miao hesitated, shrinking slightly into the car, then nodded a bit hesitantly.

"So if a friend is in trouble, wouldn’t you help out?"

"Uh..." Qin Miao thought for a while and kept nodding.

Yu Jialiang sneakily looked outside the pit, then whispered to Qin Miao, "When my friends come back later and ask about your results, don’t say your exact position, just say the results were average, and there will be a big thank you after the race."

Qin Miao, not really understanding, could only nod stiffly.

Then Yu Jialiang, full of smiles, went to the engineer to discuss hiding Qin Miao’s results.

This time he planned to give his friends a little shock with his connections.

It didn’t take long, about 5 minutes later, all three AMG GTs returned to the pit.

During this time, Qin Miao checked his lap data with the staff.

However, this car was only used for mild entertainment races and hadn’t been heavily race-modified, so it naturally didn’t use a race computer to monitor Qin Miao’s performance. Therefore, Qin Miao could only see his lap times and the speed of three sections. Qin Miao also took a look at the results of the person in P1.

That person, like him, had no significant difference in the second and third sections, but was about 0.1 seconds faster in the turns T1, T2, and T3, and it was by this 0.1 second advantage that the person got the pole position.

After checking, Qin Miao didn’t bother with it anymore.

Anyway, his primary goal for this race is to secure a top three finish, whether it’s first, second, or even third, it wouldn’t impact the final results much.

After a quick mental recap of the qualifying process, Qin Miao asked the engineer to add 30 liters of fuel.

At this moment, Qin Miao’s car had about a little over 11 liters of fuel left, and the AMG GT displays average fuel consumption. After a round of aggressive driving, the car showed a fuel consumption of 40 liters per 100 kilometers.

The upcoming race is 19 laps in total, with each lap of the Shanghai circuit being 5.451 kilometers, totaling 103 kilometers for 19 laps.

Qin Miao plans to run the main race a bit more conservatively, adding just enough fuel should be sufficient for him to finish the race.

The engineer did a quick calculation and found that Qin Miao was at least two laps short on fuel.

Originally, he wanted to advise against it, but seeing Qin Miao’s results made him give up.

From Qin Miao’s performance, it was evident Qin Miao knew how to drive, and skimping on a few laps worth of fuel might be his strategy to reduce weight.

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Updated with an additional Chapter yesterday...