Chapter 144 - 66: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Chapter 144: Chapter 66: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Wu Shi was doing the exact same thing. Even on the racing line Verstappen had just driven over, the grip levels varied due to the kicked-up spray and the rubber marbles brought back by the returning standing water. He had to admit this was a grueling battle. Faced with Alan continuously reporting the car’s condition and recommended parameters, he barely even responded anymore.

WHOOSH!

The two Van Amersfoort cars streaked past one after another. At this point, there were only two and a half minutes left in the race.

Wu Shi was finally extremely close to Verstappen, but overtaking was just too difficult. Previously, he could maintain his lap times practically with his eyes closed, relying purely on mental calculations. Overtaking, however, required visibility! At the end of every straight, he had to plunge through the thick wall of spray left by Verstappen just to see the conditions in the corner. Even so, there were several times when he hit the water spray, felt the airflow was wrong, and immediately backed off the throttle.

Sure enough, Verstappen was playing the exact same trick he had just used. He took a fast-in, slow-out line, but braked incredibly hard mid-corner, forcefully changing the rhythm to fast-in, heavy-braking, fast-out. In dry conditions, this kind of rhythm would be practically handing a position to the opponent on a silver platter. But in the rain with zero visibility, the driver behind would undoubtedly be startled and might instinctively lock up the brakes and slide off the track.

Relying on his excellent psychological fortitude, Wu Shi resisted the urge to steer outward. Instead, he stubbornly braked right on Verstappen’s gearbox, narrowly avoiding a collision on several occasions.

"Good heavens! What on earth are Max Verstappen and Wu Shi doing?! Does Verstappen want Wu Shi to crash into him?" The commentator watched the scene, feeling a chill run down his spine.

Alan knew what was happening too, but he couldn’t just tell Wu Shi to stay calm at such a critical moment in a championship fight. He could only say over the radio, "There are four slow cars ahead. You’re about to lap them."

Wu Shi TR: "Copy that."

Just as the words faded, Verstappen had already passed one of the lapped cars. However, right as Wu Shi was about to follow him through, the slow car unexpectedly tried to merge back onto the racing line. Wu Shi’s concentration was at its absolute peak, his eyes locked on the flashing red taillights faintly looming in the rain and mist. Spotting the danger, he hurriedly slowed down, changed his line to squeeze past, and immediately yelled over the radio.

"Hey! Is he an idiot? Didn’t his team tell him there were two cars behind him?!"

Alan TR: "Calm down, I’m communicating with their team right now! You need to watch out for the three cars ahead as well."

In truth, the driver couldn’t be blamed. The instruction he had received was simply: *There’s a lapping car behind, let them pass.* Naturally, once he saw Verstappen go by, he assumed the lapping car had passed and moved back to his own racing line. Because of this slight delay, the gap that Wu Shi had painstakingly closed was pulled open by Verstappen once again.

Wu Shi silently ran the calculations in his head. Although he could close the gap, the chances of actually overtaking were incredibly slim. Still, he refused to slow down until the very last second.

The teams of the remaining lapped drivers were far more effective with their notifications. Knowing there were two lapping cars coming through, their drivers didn’t immediately change lanes after letting Verstappen pass.

"That incident just now cost Wu about 0.3 seconds, but he somehow made it back up on this lap! Oh! Verstappen is changing his corner-entry rhythm again! Wu has terrible visibility; he can’t find an overtaking line in the spray!" the commentator marveled.

As they approached the Turn 7 hairpin again, Verstappen pulled the same trick.

"Verstappen is doing the exact same thing as before! He’s still trying to force Wu into making a mistake, but Wu’s car control is exceptionally strong. He isn’t yielding to the outside...

"No! Wu steered to the inside! His front left tire caught a tiny bit of the curb! His car is spinning!"

SCREECH!

Car 32 spun out at Turn 7, but after completing three full rotations, it miraculously came to a steady stop right on the track.

"Whoa, he didn’t crash? Uh, I’m sorry, I mean, Wu actually managed to control the car!" the commentator corrected himself, realizing his slip of the tongue.

Alan TR: "Take it easy. One lap left."

Wu Shi took a deep breath. He had originally hoped to use an even more extreme inside line to execute the overtake, but the curb was far more slippery than he had imagined. Just grazing it slightly caused the car to instantly lose control at that speed. If there had been about ten laps left, he would have had enough time to figure out the exact grip levels all over the track and make a safe overtake. Unfortunately, he had run out of laps.

As the race reached Lap 37, the checkered flag waved from the platform above the start-finish straight. With a SWOOSH, Verstappen flashed across the finish line.

Verstappen TR: "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

He shouted in pure elation, driving blazingly fast even on the cool-down lap. The person he wanted to share the thrill of this victory with the most was someone he could only see once the car returned to the pit lane.