Chapter 309: Chapter 159: Five-Star Jinx (6K, Bonus 23/27) (Part 2)
After Qin Miao started his flying lap, the director fixed the camera on Qin Miao.
"Qin Miao’s first flying lap." After seeing the footage from the director, Fei said, "Actually, my expectations for Qin Miao aren’t too high. It’s only the first Grand Prix, no need for pressure, making it into Q2 is enough."
Bing, however, had a different opinion: "I, on the contrary, hope Qin Miao can show the dominant performance he had in F2, after all, he’s driving a Mercedes."
"But F1 is different from F2, everyone needs an adaptation process."
...
As the three commentators chatted, Qin Miao on the track also completed a relatively conservative flying lap.
The performance could only be considered average, three sectors in green, temporarily ranking eighth, below Sainz and above Ricardo.
After knowing his rank, Qin Miao remained relatively calm. After all, it was just a baseline lap, and Qin Miao hadn’t pushed to the extreme.
However, after Qin Miao’s first flying lap yielded this result, those who were already skeptical of Qin Miao online suddenly became animated.
[That’s it? The genius driver is only eighth?]
[No wonder Ferrari didn’t want him. Driving a Mercedes still isn’t as fast as Sainz in a Ferrari.]
[I think he should return home early rather than embarrass himself abroad.]
[Toto misjudged.]
[Does this poor performance deserve a Mercedes car?]
[Isn’t this Qin Miao really not up to it? What was Toto thinking when he signed him?]
[Honestly, with the speed of this Mercedes, I could do it too!]
...
After finishing the first flying lap, he obtained a valid result.
However, this result couldn’t guarantee that Qin Miao would securely enter Q2, so he still had to go out for another lap at the end of Q1.
Anyway, Qin Miao had plenty of soft tires, and the grip on this set of worn soft tires was still good. After one flying lap, the tire degradation was only about 0.2 seconds.
In Q2, they could still be used for a baseline flying lap.
Returning to the garage, Toto came to Qin Miao’s side wearing noise-cancelling headphones.
After patting Qin Miao’s helmet, he comforted, "Your Q1 performance met the team’s expectations. We have plenty of tires. I believe with your ability, you just need to perform normally, so maintain your composure and avoid arrogance or impatience."
After all, Qin Miao was lying in the car, plus the noisy environment in the pit, even if he could speak, Toto wouldn’t hear him. So Qin Miao simply gave a thumbs-up to indicate he heard.
When there were 2 minutes left until the end of Q1, Qin Miao and the Old Man were sent out again.
This time, the Old Man was in front, Qin Miao was behind.
Qin Miao still drove conservatively in this lap, ending with three green sectors and coming in seventh, 0.3 seconds faster than his first lap.
Although he successfully advanced to Q3 eventually, many still thought Qin Miao’s result was entirely due to the good Mercedes car.
Naturally, many online commentators who seemed to understand racing well started to criticize Qin Miao again. Some doubted him, stating that if Bottas were driving, he’d surely perform better than Qin Miao.
Although they all knew that in Q1, advancing was the only goal, it didn’t stop them from thinking Qin Miao wasn’t up to par.
Q2.
Back in the team garage, Qin Miao switched to the first set of less worn soft tires from Q1 and waited with the fans on for over seven minutes.
As soon as Q2 started and only 2 minutes in, Qin Miao was sent out.
After all, the track conditions at this time were much better than during Q1, and the tire rubber on the track was sufficient.
Qin Miao was sent out as the first car.
In this lap, many drivers used medium tires, and on this track, medium tires weren’t much slower than soft tires.
After all, drivers had a limited number of tires, and on this Bahrain track where tire degradation was fast, soft tires with a 10% wear rate were slower than medium tires.
The reason Qin Miao used soft tires was partly because he had one more set of soft tires than the average driver, and Qin Miao’s worn soft tires still had enough grip.
Into Q2, Qin Miao also unleashed some of his capabilities, pushing to the limit a bit more, but without taking extreme risks.
After the first lap, Qin Miao’s temporary score was fifth, but as the final lap ended, his rank was pushed out of the qualifying zone.
However, as the last flying lap of Q2 ended, Qin Miao barely made it to ninth place.
The three commentators at Five-Star Sports spoke positively on Qin Miao’s behalf.
In summary: "At least Qin Miao made it to Q3 on his first F1 track appearance."
Q3.
At this time, Qin Miao still had two sets of new soft tires.
They were enough for the qualifying stage, and even gave Qin Miao extra choices. If he used both sets during qualifying, the chances of good results in Q3 would be higher.
But this choice would leave Qin Miao without new soft tires for the main race.
However, if he saved one set, Qin Miao would have more strategic options during the race.
Mercedes’ strategy group compiled Qin Miao’s data and presented him with two options.
The first option is using both sets of red tires in the Q3 qualifying stage, then choosing a yellow-white one-stop strategy in the race.
The second option is using only one set of soft tires in qualifying, with the race allowing for either a yellow-white one-stop or a red-yellow one-stop strategy.