Chapter 1513: On the Brink of Death_2

Seeing this scene, Qin Miao wonders if Verstappen has quit drugs, as he can bear it.

However, Verstappen can clearly see that this defense by Qin Miao is likely his own mistake.

But Verstappen doesn’t dare to gamble; he doesn’t believe in any flaws of Qin Miao.

His countless experiences battling Qin Miao on the track in the past told Verstappen that Qin Miao is a crafty fox; those seemingly opportunistic flaws and track advantage points, no matter how realistic or tempting, cannot be trusted. Even if it’s a real mistake, it’s suspicious in Verstappen’s eyes.

Qin Miao is like the legendary Siren, always luring you into the abyss in his own way.

Aside from knowing he has absolute speed advantage, he’d rather stay behind Qin Miao and breathe in the exhaust of his engine than seize a flaw that seems easy to overtake him.

But guess what, Verstappen really found Qin Miao’s only flaw in his full defense capability.

Thus, Verstappen is one of the few drivers who have completed an overtake of Qin Miao since he entered F1.

The other person… naturally is Hamilton.

Finally, Verstappen followed Qin Miao until the 59th lap.

Actually, in the 58th lap during the DRS zone of the starting straight, Verstappen could have overtaken Qin Miao.

But looking at the 90% charge in his energy unit, Verstappen still felt unsafe. Until it was charged to 100%, did Verstappen decide to take action against Qin Miao.

When Verstappen finally made his move on Qin Miao, the battery of his car was at 100% charge.

At this moment, Verstappen was a bit like those protagonists in the “linger-to-strike” type novels, acting only when everything was prepared.

The action position was naturally the starting straight.

He didn’t even wait for the starting straight; after exiting T12, Verstappen started releasing ERS.

At T12, the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao was still 0.4 seconds. By the time they exited T13, the gap was only 0.3 seconds.

And Verstappen was closing in on Qin Miao quickly.

Even though Qin Miao knew that no matter how he struggled, it would be futile given the speed and track position of Verstappen’s car at that moment.

But over the years, Qin Miao had experienced a lot, and having raced for two years, his dopamine threshold was raised high.

Besides driving, only winning a race championship would bring him joy from the dopamine rush.

Though inherently lazy, Qin Miao still longs for the race championship.

So when Verstappen attacked, even though Qin Miao knew he probably couldn’t defend against Verstappen, he still squeezed towards the inside line to prevent Verstappen from overtaking.

Even though Qin Miao knew what he was doing was likely futile, trying to keep Verstappen behind was virtually impossible.

But Qin Miao still did it.

And Qin Miao’s prediction wasn’t wrong; faced with Qin Miao’s squeeze, Verstappen did dodge towards the inside of the track.

Although Verstappen already left space on the track, he never stepped on the brake from start to finish.

He was in full throttle mode.

And Qin Miao, after all, was not Verstappen; he couldn’t really shove Verstappen into the track wall.

Qin Miao wouldn’t do it, nor could he do it.

So after pushing Verstappen to a very extreme position, Qin Miao left just a bit wider than a car width for Verstappen, without continuing to press him.

At this point, Qin Miao’s intention was clear: I’m giving you just a little bit wider than a car’s width; if you can maneuver and overtake within such a tiny range, then you’re great; I really can’t do anything about it.

But if you can’t get past and crash into me, sorry, I left you enough space, and crashing would be your responsibility.

Plus, my Mercedes is known for its hard suspension; crashing into your Red Bull, I’m not afraid at all.

Even if neither of our cars are damaged, given your proactive crash with me this time and the starting phase crash, accumulated penalties would mean at least a 10-second penalty.

Thus, the race championship would be mine.

Even though Qin Miao’s idea was indeed creative, Verstappen is Verstappen.

Even though Qin Miao left him a very small space, Verstappen managed to forcefully overtake Qin Miao without any deceleration.

Seeing Verstappen pull away after overtaking him, Qin Miao felt more powerless within.

He had done everything he could, but Verstappen’s RB19 is simply too fast.

Plus, Pan himself has the guts to push through such a narrow gap, and the key is he did it without any mistakes.

Pan is indeed not an ordinary person.

Qin Miao can only comfort himself like this.

“Qin Miao’s defense was valiant this time.” On the track, after Verstappen overtook Qin Miao, although Bing from Five-Star Sports was dejected, he still said, “In today’s race, Qin Miao’s performance has been great, but we can also see the advantage of Red Bull’s car performance this season.”

On the track, Qin Miao also had the same thoughts; since he had already been overtaken by Verstappen, what he could do now was run his normal pace on the track until the race ended.

At this moment, there are 6 laps left until the end of the race.

No one would think that with Verstappen’s speed, he couldn’t pull away from Qin Miao by 5 seconds within the remaining six laps.

Even Qin Miao himself thought the same.

However, Qin Miao didn’t give up; he began silently recharging his car’s battery.

By the end of the 60th lap, Verstappen had widened the gap between himself and Qin Miao to 0.9 seconds.

The reason he hadn’t pushed Qin Miao out of the DRS zone directly is that Verstappen used up all his ERS charge when attacking Qin Miao.

Thus, Qin Miao maximized the advantage of the DRS zone at the end of the second timing segment, catching Verstappen’s slipstream and DRS.

It’s essential to know that the Red Bull W14 is an extremely biased car; with DRS, the tail speed is even faster than RB19 with DRS.

Thus, with Verstappen’s slipstream and DRS, Qin Miao achieved a maximum speed of 345 km/h while reducing the time gap with Verstappen to 0.5 seconds.

Then, in the first few corners of the third timing segment, Verstappen felt the threat from Qin Miao.

His speed visibly increased again, and he pulled away from Qin Miao by 0.5 seconds in the four corners before the DRS detection point on the starting straight.

Pushing Qin Miao out of the DRS zone.

Honestly, suddenly finding that Verstappen still had so much tire allowance felt like a direct blow to Qin Miao’s heart.

Damn it, Qin Miao originally thought he had a chance to steal a race win with the five-second penalty on Verstappen, but now it seems completely hopeless.

End of the 61st lap, the gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao widened to 2 seconds.

End of the 62nd lap, the gap is 3.1 seconds.

End of the 63rd lap, 3.9 seconds.

That lap, Verstappen’s lap time noticeably slowed down, only pulling away from Qin Miao by 0.8 seconds on the track.

This is normal because since Verstappen truly started attacking Qin Miao, he hasn’t spared the tires.

Although the soft tires are C3, on tracks like Monaco where tire wear is minimal, they can even be used as hard tires.

But the Catalonia track wears tires heavily, and Verstappen’s tires are now showing signs of slowing down.

End of the 64th lap, 4.6 seconds.

At this moment, there are two laps left until the end of the race.