Chapter 1376 - 517: Qin Miao Gets Dirty! (Part 2)

Chapter 1376: Chapter 517: Qin Miao Gets Dirty! (Part 2)

A set of routine small combination maneuvers, for the audience, it might seem like a brilliant attack and defense, but for Qin Miao, it was just a regular action.

Also due to Qin Miao’s set of small maneuvers, all the advantages Verstappen gained on the outside line went up in smoke.

Although Verstappen was filled with anger, he still forced himself to calm down.

Racing is somewhat like mathematics.

When you’re angry, you’ll act out, but not with mathematics. If you don’t understand math, it simply won’t work.

Racing is the same; no matter how angry you get, you can’t transform that anger into speed that surpasses your competition.

Of course, if you want to torpedo your opponent, that’s another story.

This winter break, Verstappen watched a lot of footage at home and practiced a lot, and now it all began to play its due role.

Verstappen controlled his explosive mindset, relying on the RB19’s better cornering performance compared to the W14 to keep the time gap with Qin Miao between 0.3 and 0.2 seconds.

Verstappen couldn’t believe that with 30% battery left and DRS, he couldn’t take out Qin Miao in the second DRS zone!

Then the two came to T8, one after the other, which is a low-speed corner.

After this corner, they would reach T9, the second DRS detection point of the Sakhir track.

Then Qin Miao braked a little late at the T8 braking point.

However, to prevent Verstappen’s attack, Qin Miao took a line closer to the inside.

This resulted in Qin Miao locking his left front wheel while trying to control the car before the braking point.

After all, T8 is a sharp right turn, where most of the car’s weight is on the left front wheel throughout the turn.

So in such extreme conditions, when Qin Miao braked a little too hard, locking the left front wheel was understandable.

Due to the lock-up of Qin Miao’s left front wheel, the car, which still had grip entering the turn, suddenly experienced a short understeer.

The car line that Qin Miao was following suddenly opened up a space about two car widths wide.

Seeing such a big gap, Verstappen couldn’t help but twitch his eyebrows.

Even though Qin Miao is a world champion with extraordinary car control skills.

Plus, Qin Miao himself can even enter a state of Man and Car Unity with his car.

So as soon as the car went out of control, Qin Miao immediately eased off the throttle, counter-steered, and waited for the front wheels to regain grip before returning to his proper path.

At the same time, Qin Miao activated the ERS of his car and began to release its power with full force, attempting to maintain his current position.

Qin Miao’s big mistake naturally startled everyone.

"Qin Miao, the left front wheel locked up, oh dear, how could he be so careless!" Fei, upon seeing this, jumped up from his seat in excitement.

Bing and Zhou Haoran also showed various expressions, and neither of their performances was particularly good.

They both wore worried expressions on their faces.

While on the track, as Qin Miao executed this series of actions, his main focus wasn’t on the track itself but rather on Verstappen behind him.

He wanted to see whether Verstappen, following him at 0.2 seconds, could resist striking when Qin Miao had made such a significant and obvious mistake.

As for Verstappen, seeing such a large opening ahead of him, he could guess it was a trap set by Qin Miao, but no matter how he interpreted it, this trap was an excellent opportunity, so he couldn’t control his long-standing race instincts and reflexes, choosing to cut into Qin Miao’s inside line.

Seeing that the Red Bull car behind him took the bait, Qin Miao couldn’t help but smile brightly, even laughing out loud.

However, as Qin Miao had his helmet on and the racetrack environment was noisy, without opening the team radio, no one could hear Qin Miao’s cheerful laughter.

Despite the richness in facial expressions, Qin Miao’s hands were not slow in action.

After straightening the car body, he began to accelerate with full force.

Verstappen’s maneuver resulted in his car drifting from the optimal exit line, taking additional time to realign the car’s front end.

Thus, relying on the W14’s superior acceleration and ERS release, Qin Miao managed to block Verstappen on the outside line of T8 before being completely overtaken.

Then using the W14’s acceleration capability, he even began reducing the distance gap with Verstappen on the outside line.

The two cars went wheel-to-wheel instantly.

Qin Miao’s positioning here was strategic.

In T8, he was on the outside, but come T9 and T10, he’d be on the inside.

Both started accelerating towards T9.

Verstappen knew that the DRS detection point at T9 was crucial for this attack and defense.

To overtake Qin Miao, he couldn’t let him get the DRS.

So 10 meters before the T9 DRS detection point, Verstappen unexpectedly braked.

The braking was brief, lasted around 0.5 seconds, after which Verstappen started accelerating again.

Since Verstappen only intended for Qin Miao to pass the DRS detection point first and not give up the offensive, he just needed to slightly reduce his car’s speed, not give Qin Miao more than a one-second advantage.

However, as Verstappen began to accelerate again, intending to let Qin Miao pass, he looked at the left front of his car and suddenly his pupils shrank.

Because at this moment in front of Verstappen’s left wasn’t the expected black Mercedes car.

That Mercedes was still in Verstappen’s rearview mirror.

In fact, Qin Miao also tapped the brakes before the DRS detection point.

They both tapped their brakes at the same place, 10 meters before the DRS detection point.

From the perspectives of the audience and commentators, it was as if the two were piloting mechas in Pacific Rim and hit the brakes simultaneously.

Therefore, naturally, Qin Miao secured the DRS between T10 and T11 in this DRS zone.

"Qin Miao made a mistake and went wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen!"

"Fortunately, Qin Miao is on the inside line, still has a chance in T10, and his acceleration is fast; can he gain the advantage on the inside line...?"

"What? Both of them applied brakes?!"

"At the DRS detection point, Qin Miao and Verstappen hit their brakes before the DRS detection!"

"This reminds me of the crash between Hamilton and Verstappen in Saudi Arabia in 2021, where neither wanted to be first past the DRS detection point."

"Although the intensity isn’t like back then, the precision and beauty of racing technique in Qin Miao and Verstappen’s offense and defense is amazing!"

"This was Qin Miao predicting Verstappen’s prediction!" Zhou Haoran screamed: "If Qin Miao didn’t foresee Verstappen’s move, his brake would have been handing over his position, possibly becoming a joke, but Qin Miao! He made the right bet!"

"A stroke of genius, a stroke of genius!" Bing and the others, having realized, exclaimed while shaking their heads and clapping their hands.

"How on earth did Qin Miao predict Verstappen’s decision to brake? And what’s really surprising is that Qin Miao dared to gamble on a brake duel with Verstappen, and he bet correctly!" Fei, hands on his head, wore an expression full of surprise and delight.