Chapter 1514: You Reap What You Sow

Despite the decreasing speed difference between Verstappen and Qin Miao over these last few laps, there’s only 0.4 seconds left to push Qin Miao out of the five-second penalty zone.

Verstappen breathed a sigh of relief after seeing this.

At the end of lap 65, the time gap between them was 5.2 seconds.

Verstappen successfully drove Qin Miao out of his DRS zone from behind.

At this moment, he was the true champion.

Now, all Verstappen needed to do was maintain his current speed and cross the finish line in the final lap.

Meanwhile, on Qin Miao’s side, he was looking at his car’s 66% ERS battery level and a 0.2-second time gap.

He gritted his teeth.

He directly adjusted his car’s ERS to qualifying mode.

Although Qin Miao knew that there wouldn’t likely be any surprises in today’s race, he was still prepared to gamble in the final lap.

Even to lull Verstappen and Red Bull into a false sense of security, Qin Miao kept a stable lap time over the last few laps with a steady decreasing trend.

His aim was to let Verstappen and Red Bull lower their guard, and then attempt to give them a drill in the rear, surprise them with a bold move.

In the final lap, Qin Miao ran it as if it was a flying lap.

Meanwhile, the live broadcast director placed the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen at the bottom of the screen, giving the audience the most direct comparison.

As Qin Miao passed the first timing sector, the time gap between them was reduced to 5 seconds.

However, as Qin Miao entered the latter part of the first timing sector and the first half of the second timing sector, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen widened again to 5.3 seconds.

In the DRS zone of the second timing sector, Qin Miao, although unable to use DRS, still shortened the time gap to 5.2 seconds.

At this time, even though the people at Red Bull were somewhat nervous, they didn’t think Qin Miao’s worn-out hard compound tires could threaten Verstappen’s position on the track.

But everyone couldn’t help but feel tense.

After all, the moment when the true winner of the race is decided at the last moment is the most thrilling and suffocating.

On the track, Qin Miao began to accelerate after the T12 corner in the final timing sector.

At this moment, Qin Miao’s car was at least 100 kilograms lighter than at the start, even though he was using a set of hard compound tires that had run for nearly 39 laps.

But the weight reduction after fuel consumption and Qin Miao’s strong tire conservation allowed him to have a considerably good grip on this set of hard compound tires.

Therefore, at this moment, Qin Miao took a very extreme entry angle at T12, completing a full-throttle exit at the corner.

Qin Miao took this corner in an extremely tight manner; a little more on the angle and he could be launched by the curb, a little less and he might understeer during corner exit.

Qin Miao’s extreme exit, with the right tire being in an ideal position, steering a little more left would have led the car’s left tire onto the low-grip green paint outside the curb.

A little less and the exit angle wouldn’t be extreme, preventing him from achieving the fastest speed.

With the current status of Qin Miao’s car, T13 normally wouldn’t allow for full throttle through the corner, but Qin Miao did not shift up to 8th gear in this corner, instead maintaining at 7th gear, keeping his car in a fuel-cut state through the corner.

Upon exiting the corner, shifting normally and accelerating.

Finally, under the anticipation and focus of everyone, he crossed the finish line.

After Qin Miao crossed the line, almost everyone concerned about Qin Miao’s performance in today’s race immediately focused on the post-race time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen.

Upon seeing that number, there was a moment of silence in the Mercedes team’s garage, followed by everyone seemingly being bitten by a dog simultaneously, as they jumped up from their seats, starting to cheer and embrace passionately.

In the Mercedes team’s home base, in Qin Miao’s resting room, Qimeng also smiled as she lifted her daughter, who had been watching the broadcast screen intently throughout the race in her arms, and said to her, “Muqiu, look, your daddy is the champion!”

Muqiu also laughed as though she understood.

Toto was also smiling, clapping his hands while shaking his head.

After crossing the finish line, Qin Miao belatedly felt a sweat breaking out over him. Normally, Qin Miao rarely sweats under race conditions; even in the hottest tracks, he seldom sweats.

At this moment, Qin Miao didn’t feel as apprehensive as when the race hadn’t finished.

There was even a moment when he didn’t want to analyze whether he managed to overtake Verstappen on the final lap.

Because in the last few corners, Qin Miao truly gave it everything, acquiring a good result next was no longer important for him.

At this point, Qin Miao felt he probably let it go; winning the Grand Prix is his achievement, shining in the last timing sector, pushing his car to its extreme potential.

But if he didn’t win the Grand Prix, Qin Miao wouldn’t be discouraged, as he at least gave this race his all.

Remembering this race in the future, he won’t feel it was a pity.