Chapter 411: Chapter 411

But there was no choice, the tire surplus built up over so many laps had been exhausted while overtaking Perez.

If Qin Miao tried to overtake Ricardo in front, his tires would really run out.

In the next few laps, Qin Miao began a long-distance run with a tire-saving pace.

To preserve the tires, Qin Miao didn’t use ERS power to shake off Perez behind him.

And Master Pei indeed lived up to his name; after being overtaken by Qin Miao, he relied on DRS to stay right behind him, without Qin Miao pulling away.

But that’s all Master Pei could do, he couldn’t overtake Qin Miao in the short term.

Moreover, as his soft tires began to degrade, it also became increasingly difficult for him to keep up with Qin Miao.

In lap twenty-two, the pit window opened, but Ricardo in front of Qin Miao showed no intention of pitting.

And Qin Miao, just following behind Ricardo, didn’t dare make too many moves, only using Ricardo’s DRS to save tire and recharging his car’s battery.

In the short term, Qin Miao had no plans to overtake Ricardo, he was waiting for Ricardo to pit.

As a result, Ricardo, Qin Miao, and Perez formed a small DRS train.

However, on lap twenty-three, both Ricardo and Perez made mistakes in the same area, albeit different mistakes; Ricardo cut into the T14 apex too early, while Perez went wide on the exit.

Although Qin Miao needed to save tires, he wouldn’t be himself if he let go of such an opportunity.

So the move to overtake Perez was replayed on the track.

Interestingly, Qin Miao didn’t rely on car performance or skill to overtake, but rather his opponents’ mistakes, all three overtakes were .

After overtaking Ricardo, Qin Miao reached fourth place.

The three drivers ahead of Qin Miao were Hamilton, Verstappen, and Leclerc.

The first and second are not to be mentioned now, in thirteen laps Leclerc had opened a full 9-second gap.

And Leclerc had also a 7-second gap over Ricardo, which means Qin Miao was now 16 seconds behind the leading group.

Perhaps it seemed like Qin Miao would lose time for a 16-second pit stop, considering that a Catalonia track pit stop normally takes about 22 seconds.

But considering Qin Miao was blocked by three cars on the track, without this obstruction, Qin Miao could have saved at least 10 seconds on this pit stop.

And as time passed, the tires of the three drivers in front began to degrade, and Qin Miao, despite tire-saving on medium compounds, started chasing Verstappen at a pace of 0.6 seconds per lap.

Before the race truly ends, no one can determine whether their tactics were good or bad.

On lap twenty-four, Verstappen, unable to overtake Hamilton, opted for an early pit stop in an attempt to undercut Hamilton.

However, during the pit stop tire change, the left rear tire change mechanic faltered, resulting in a 4.2-second tire change for Verstappen.

For Red Bull, this wasn’t the worst, because according to the strategy group’s original calculation, Verstappen was supposed to rejoin the race about 1 second ahead of Qin Miao after this pit stop.

Just enough to avoid facing Qin Miao’s wall of sighs. Orıginal content can be found at n0velfire.net

But because of this 4.2-second pit stop, Verstappen ended up behind his teammate Perez, directly trapped in the DRS train led by Qin Miao.

However, this time Toto didn’t give Qin Miao any team orders, Qin Miao’s strategy was extremely risky, tire wear was crucial, if Verstappen wanted to overtake Qin Miao, all Qin Miao could do is let him pass, otherwise, he would have to pit again.

Because of Verstappen’s pit stop, Qin Miao moved to third place, and started continuously chasing Leclerc ahead.

At this point, Qin Miao was 6.7 seconds behind Leclerc.

Lap twenty-five, the gap was 5.9 seconds.

Lap twenty-six, 4.1 seconds.

Lap twenty-seven, 3.3 seconds.