Chapter 276: Rushing to the Top Three (20/20)
In motor racing, the leading car tends to go faster and faster, while the car behind it often runs slower, sometimes with even two people standing on the same podium, there is a difference of more than 1 minute. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info In the case of the same points, it is not uncommon for the eighth place to be lapped by the first place.
Therefore, in the race, the more the car behind chases forward, the more difficult it is to go further, especially in the middle and late stages of the race, every time you advance a position, it means a huge victory.
Zhang Guan had already chased to twelfth place, and it was becoming more and more difficult for him to go further, and it was at this time that there was an accident on the track, and BMW Sauber's Kubica and Toyota's Trulli collided.
Turn 16, the last turn of the course, is the big straight before the finish line after Turn 16. This corner can barely be considered a medium-speed corner, and the average driver will pass in third gear, which is not too difficult.
However, it was such a difficult corner, but there was an accident. In the two cars that collided, Toyota retired outright, while BMW Sauber stumbled back to the pits.
In the rain, it was already more troublesome to clean up the track, so the race club did not hesitate to show the yellow flag and dispatch the safety car. This also means that Sebastian Vettel, who finished first, has his lead wiped out and all the cars will be back to the starting form.
The safety car is obviously good news for Zhang Guan, who has smoothed the gap with the car in front.
There was an accident with the two cars in front of him, and Zhang Guan went straight up to tenth place, and he was just two steps away from eighth place where he could earn points.
The safety car was dispatched, and there were inevitably people in front of the car who took advantage of this opportunity to make a pit stop, such as BMW Sauber's Highfield, whose pit stop allowed Zhang Guan to go one more place to ninth.
But Zhang's reputation for good fortune didn't end there, as Ferrari driver Massa, who had already finished third, suddenly pulled his car to the side of the road, and his car was in blue smoke at the rear, showing in slow motion that the car suddenly had power on the straights, which was obvious when there was an engine problem, and Massa retired from the race.
It is impossible to overtake when the safety car is dispatched, but Zhang Guan, under the guidance of the safety car, was lucky to come to the eighth position, and he has entered the scoring area. If he finishes in this order, Zhang Guan will receive one point.
At this time, the seven cars in front of Zhang Guan were still led by the two cars of Red Bull Racing, followed by Ferrari's Raikkonen, McLaren's Hamilton, China Power's Barrichello, McLaren's Hamilton and Toro Rosso's Boumy. Two of Red Bull's cars, Barrichello and Buamy, have already made a pit stop, while the others have yet to make a pit stop.
"We might just have a chance!" Ross Brown's expression gradually relaxed, the biggest difficulty is the wear of the tires, the first eight laps of the safety car has reduced the wear of Zhang Guan's tires a lot, and now the safety car has appeared again, once again so that Zhang Guan's tires have a rare rest.
The safety car led the track for five laps, and on lap 23 the safety car returned to the pits and the race resumed.
The rain was still heavy and the Red Bull Racing's advantage was still evident, and after a lap they left the rest of the cars behind. In the car ahead, McLaren's Hamilton overtook Ferrari's Raikkonen, while Zhang Guan also started to attack Boomy in seventh.
Buamy had already made a pit stop, and his light fuel strategy was also on a brand new set of tyres, so Zhang Guan was caught in a brief struggle. However, Buamy was ultimately defeated by Zhang Guan, who took advantage of Buaimy's failure to take a good line in the bend and passed Buamy on lap 26 to move up to seventh place.
On lap 27, Ferrari's Raikkonen pitted for the first time, and he spent more time refueling and switching to a new set of wet tyres, with 29 laps to go, a set of wet tyres was enough to cover the entire distance, and Raikkonen was clearly prepared to use a one-stop strategy.
Raikkonen's pit stop moved Zhang up another spot to sixth, and he began to move closer to McLaren's Kovalainen.
Thirty laps later, the drivers began to pit for a one-stop strategy, with McLaren's two cars pitting on laps 34 and 35 to finish eighth and ninth respectively, with Zhang Guan moving up two places to fourth, ahead of his team-mate Barrichello. It's just that Zhang Guan at this time is still some distance away from Barrichello.
With 20 laps to go, there were three drivers ahead of Zhang – Sebastian Sebastian Vettel, second Webber and third Barrichello – all three of whom had made a pit stop and another pit stop to follow, which would be an opportunity for Zhang to grasp.
At this time, Zhang Guan does not have to fight with other drivers, he can run at his own pace with more peace of mind, and in this state, his speed is getting faster and faster, slowly approaching forward.
On lap 37, Webb, who was in second place, made a second pit stop. The pit stop was a bit early, and Webber was clearly hoping to use a different strategy to overtake his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, and when Webber walked out of the pit lane, he was behind Zhang Guan, who was fourth.
Zhang Guan finally came to third place, which can be on the podium.
Starting in 20th place, with 19 laps left in the race, Zhang Guan became third, and he moved up 17 places!
And the race is not over yet, there are still 19 laps to go!
"There's a chance, there's a chance." Ross Brown clenched his fists, and the GPS positioning system showed that Zhang Guan was gradually closing in on Barrichello.
Barrichello saw the red in the rearview mirror, but the mist was too big to tell what it looked like.
"Red, Ferrari? Massa has already withdrawn, so the only thing left is Raikkonen. It's impossible, Raikkonen should have stopped, now he must have made a pit stop, and I'm a pit stop now, I'm a light fuel strategy, he's a heavy fuel strategy, his car is heavier than me, and in the same case of a pit stop, I'm running faster than him, and he can't catch up with me. ”
Thinking of this, Barrichello opened his mouth and asked, "Who is the person behind me?" Is it Raikkonen? ”
"No!" A categorical answer came over the radio: "Behind you is our boss." It's Zhang Guan! ”
"What? With eighteen laps to go, he's already catching up with me? He's the last one on the grid! He had risen seventeen places so quickly! Barrichello's startled voice was radioed back to the convoy.
"The boss is a second faster than you every lap, and it won't be long before he's behind you. With eighteen laps to go, I suggest you can pit on the next lap! The team's engineer spoke.
"Okay, get me the tires ready, I'll pit stop." Barrichello spoke. This is equivalent to relinquishing his second place. (To be continued.) )