Chapter 1524: The Main Race Begins (6K, Extra Update 13/14)_2

Every bit less dust is a gain.

After completing the race preparations, it quickly moved into the race stage.

With all the team staff withdrawing from the track, the race was about to start.

Qin Miao recalled the team’s arranged strategy and points to watch for today’s race, and then began waiting for the warm-up lap to start.

Notably, when the warm-up lap started, both Qin Miao and Alonso intentionally took the outside line, aiming to clean the dirty side of the track during this time.

During this process, Qin Miao suddenly decelerated, then stomped the accelerator, wanting to see how deep the accelerator needed to be before the rear wheels of the car started slipping.

Qin Miao’s car control ability is also quite remarkable; as soon as the rear wheels started slipping, Qin Miao released the accelerator.

Continuing his warm-up lap.

Soon, all the drivers stopped their cars at the starting positions, and the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix race was about to begin.

Like most drivers, Qin Miao started today’s race on medium tires, even though Qin Miao wanted to switch to soft tires to gain a few more positions at the start.

Due to well-known reasons, Qin Miao has experienced many instances this season and the last one where his reactions were swift and rhythm was good post start, yet such excellent starts did not translate into gains in positions.

This led to many fans joking online calling Qin Miao’s start as weak.

Though Qin Miao only smiled slightly at the fans’ jokes and didn’t take it to heart, having the nickname of a weak starter did more or less make Qin Miao feel a bit uncomfortable inside.

So during the race, Qin Miao subconsciously wanted to shake off this name.

However, not this Grand Prix weekend.

One reason is that Qin Miao’s starting position was on the dirty side of the track, the other being his starting position was on the outer side of the track.

The double disadvantage compounded increases the difficulty of Qin Miao’s start and his attempt to overtake at T1.

Therefore, after team analysis and comprehensive considerations by Qin Miao, he ultimately chose to play it safe and use medium tires for the start.

But soon, Qin Miao regretted his choice…

After Zhou Guanyu, the last, parked his car at the starting position, the medical pursuit car was ready, and the five red lights began to light up one by one.

Once all five red lights were lit and extinguished, the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix officially started.

Verstappen, Alonso, Hamilton, Qin Miao all pressed the accelerator almost at the limits of their reflexes to start accelerating.

Qin Miao, somewhat surprised, glanced at Hamilton ahead to his left.

Qin Miao’s start today was as usual, good, but due to being on the dirty side of the track, his start speed was not even as fast as Hamilton’s, who started equally well ahead on his left.

Qin Miao still gradually approached Alonso ahead of him, but with the short distance from the start position at Villeneuve track to T1, such a short stretch wasn’t enough for Qin Miao to leverage W14’s acceleration advantage.

So Qin Miao immediately shifted his focus to Hamilton ahead left, wanting to gain some advantage off his teammate.

Unfortunately, Old Man’s start speed today was faster than Qin Miao’s.

Thus, Qin Miao was unable to climb positions because of his start in today’s race.

Clicking his tongue.

“Damn it, why is it like this again?” Qin Miao cursed in frustration.

Ultimately, after starting fourth and entering T1, Qin Miao remained fourth.

Although the driver ahead changed from Alonso to Hamilton.

Indeed, Old Man utilized the excellent start along with clean track and the inside line advantage to overtake Alonso before T1.

Through T2, Qin Miao actually attempted to use the opportunity where Alonso, blocked by Hamilton ahead, couldn’t utilize his car’s mid-corner grip advantage, to try overtaking Brother Tou outside.

Yet Brother Tou is an old hand, spotting Qin Miao’s move, squeezed Qin Miao towards the outside line when exiting T2.

Although he didn’t directly push Qin Miao off track, Brother Tou, relying on the shorter distance of the inner line and Aston Martin car’s stronger grip at the corner center, snatched the front position from Qin Miao after corner exit.

With the track position advantage, Alonso began continuously pressing Qin Miao towards the outer side of the track.

Under Alonso’s continuous pressure, Qin Miao eventually released the accelerator slightly and gave the position back to Alonso, staying behind him.

Despite Aston Martin’s performance recovering this season, there’s still a gap compared to Mercedes’ W14.

No rush, play around with him a bit.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao took a moment to glance at the rear-view mirror.

What started behind as Hockenheim has now turned to O’Kang.

This didn’t surprise Qin Miao, which is why he only checked the rear-view mirror after the start and his attacking attempts failed.

The two starters behind Qin Miao evidently wouldn’t pose a threat to him.

Behind him O’Kang, left-back Hockenheim, if they managed to overtake Qin Miao at the start, he’d write his name backward.

From here onward, for a while Qin Miao mainly followed behind Alonso, waiting for DRS to open.