Chapter 1377 - 518: The Gap Between Ideal and Reality

Chapter 1377: Chapter 518: The Gap Between Ideal and Reality

On the track, after Qin Miao’s successful gamble, Verstappen’s first thought was naturally to counterattack.

At T10, Qin Miao indeed had the advantage on the inside line, but Verstappen still wanted to try, so he took the crossover line at T10.

However, when the two reached T10, the acceleration of Qin Miao’s car combined with Qin Miao’s ERS and DRS.

With the blessing of three acceleration modes, Qin Miao pulled away from Verstappen at a visibly faster speed.

By the time Qin Miao reached the braking point at T11, the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao had expanded to 0.7 seconds, and all the advantage accumulated during that time was wiped out by Qin Miao’s combo move.

In this moment, aside from regretting his impulsivity, Verstappen felt more shock and confusion.

He genuinely couldn’t understand, how did Qin Miao dare to do this?

Are you a worm in my belly, Qin Miao? How could you brake late at that position?

Aren’t you really afraid I have no alternative thoughts?

In reality, there was indeed a gambling element in Qin Miao’s move.

But Qin Miao also had his reasons; on one hand, he knew Red Bull cars without DRS couldn’t accelerate as well as his own straight-line speed.

On the other hand, having battled Verstappen for so long, Qin Miao believed Verstappen should have improved a bit and would surely try other ways to attack.

Moreover, the F1 arena is all about results; regardless of the process, the fact is Qin Miao made the right gamble now.

Seeing Qin Miao’s stunning performance, Toto, watching from the team pit room all along, couldn’t help but say to Qin Miao through the team TR, "Well done, Qin Miao, keep it up."

Whereas Verstappen...

Compared to the brake test by Qin Miao, Verstappen had calmed down somewhat.

Because Verstappen knew, though the brake test was dirty, the rules didn’t clearly state you cannot brake-test the trailing car.

And regarding the recent brake move, Verstappen sincerely admired Qin Miao; Qin Miao indeed had guts and dared to gamble.

But this didn’t mean Verstappen had no chance.

He still had one lap left.

Yet, what Verstappen lacked awareness of was, after this offense-defense ended, his father, Joss Verstappen, watching from the Red Bull team pit room, sighed.

From his perspective, had Verstappen not attacked after Qin Miao’s mistake, he could likely have attacked Qin Miao in the second DRS zone.

Back then, with less than a 0.4-second gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao, and Red Bull car’s high DRS efficiency, overtaking Qin Miao would have been effortless.

But what made this old father regret was that Verstappen couldn’t resist the temptation.

Of course, Joss admitted his judgment was based on a third-party perspective, having not experienced Qin Miao’s brake test nor the 56 laps of high-intensity racing on the track.

Even Joss himself felt if he was in the race, he would likely attempt to seize the opportunity like his son.

Also, to be fair, Qin Miao’s incident of tire lock-up, whether a mistake or estimation, indeed was notable.

It just locked the left front tire, while the right front was untouched, and the rear tires maintained normal to ensure traction in the next acceleration, and Qin Miao’s lock-up duration was brief, adjustments even briefer.

This mistake made Qin Miao lose merely around 0.1 to 0.2 seconds, and more importantly gave Verstappen the inside line.

Altogether, now Qin Miao indeed capitalized on Verstappen’s oversight to gain the lead.

After another failed attack from Verstappen, he regained some composure.

Toward the end of the 56th lap, after chasing to within a second behind Qin Miao through the DRS zone, Verstappen knew he couldn’t afford to waste any more chances.

He must approach Qin Miao as closely as possible in the DRS zone on the main straight and between T3 and T4.

However, during the process, regardless of any of Qin Miao’s mistakes, he couldn’t attack; ideally, he shouldn’t even have any thoughts.

Verstappen silently reinforced this mindset.

The DRS zone between T10 and T11 was where he should act.

As for the last lap’s DRS zone...

Verstappen didn’t consider it.

Firstly due to the high difficulty of overtaking at that point, secondly this season Mercedes was highly advanced in acceleration, which left Verstappen with little confidence in acceleration battles.

Lastly, Verstappen didn’t dare to save the already scarce energy for the final use.

Even if used, it should exhaust completely between T10 and T11 DRS zone.

Verstappen planned to go all-in in the DRS zone between T10 and T11!

"Alright, we see both cars crossing the finish line again; the race is now at the final lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix."

"It’s the final lap now, let’s hope Qin Miao can withstand the pressure from Verstappen."

...

On the track, Qin Miao’s car presently had 60% energy left.

Actually, Qin Miao could still recharge his car.

But the FIA stipulated that one lap’s ERS usage time was only 33 seconds.

At full energy release, 33 seconds would nearly deplete 65% of Qin Miao’s car’s energy.