26. Turn the tide

As soon as Liu Hongyu crossed the checkpoint to start his third lap, Marcus signaled the end of the yellow flag for the third stage in the TR. Liu Hongyu can choose to slow down to defend Pérez, after all, he can't bite Hamilton in a second now, and the DRS thing can be said to be out of reach, and it has always been 0.1 or 0.2 seconds away from rushing into the DRS zone.

"DRS is not allowed at the tournament yet. The rain is gradually decreasing, so now push hard and don't worry about tire wear. Grant said.

On the tenth lap, when Liu Hongyu was just about to pass the DRS inspection point and start a new lap, Marcus suddenly shouted "Box Box" in TR.

“Foe what? The racing line didn't come out, and now the tires are wearing out. Liu Hongyu hurriedly asked.

"Then let's do a few more laps, we have to choose to undercut Hamilton if we want to knock him over and today Mercedes is very fast, Hamilton has already passed Leclerc." Marcus motioned for Liu Hongyu to come a few more laps.

"There's no hurry, the track is still wet." Liu Hongyu simply objected to the arrangement of the team, after all, although the rain is now light, it has not completely stopped.

"Then speed up this set of tires to the limit and then come in and change to dry tires." Marcus said helplessly.

After a few laps of full throttle, Liu Hongyu just bit the wake of Leclerc in front of him and was about to start following the car, looking for an opportunity to overtake directly, but Leclerc in front of him locked himself, and the front wing end plate directly hit the problem. After forcibly defending a few corners, he had to choose to give up his position, and Liu Hongyu successfully rose to third place.

“Box in next lap.” Grant reminded Liu Hongyu to make a pit stop.

After two full push laps, Liu Hongyu chose to make a pit stop.

“What the hell?” Liu Hongyu looked at the left front tire changer and scolded secretly. As for why...

You called me master, I came in to change the tires, but the tires were not ready?

After the tire changer hurriedly ran over and spent a full 12 seconds changing Liu Hongyu into a brand new neutral tire, Liu Hongyu quickly accelerated out of the pit lane and began to chase the car in front of him.

"P13, push hard." Grant said.

But Liu Hongyu had just passed Gasly and Vettel by less than two laps when Marcus suddenly had another piece of bad news in TR.

"There are several slow cars ahead, and Leclerc seems to have changed the wrong tyre, made two pit stops in a row, and now he is chasing you back and forth." Marcus reminded.

“Shit… How could those Maranello clowns in Ferrari make mistakes again...," Liu Hongyu thought to himself.

After overtaking Stroll on the big straight, Liu Hongyu took advantage of a few cars to pit and change tires to rise to 6th place, but Leclerc was almost catching up at this time.

After continuously adjusting the racing mode, Liu Hongyu quickly began to accelerate to try to overtake Aokang in front of him, otherwise Leclerc behind him would not be long after him.

"... Does this idiot have a hole in his brain? ”

After the big straight, Liu Hongyu just pulled from the outside line and was ready to get stuck in the position Aokang before the corner, but Aokang refused to give up the position and directly pushed Liu Hongyu out of the track on the wheel, but fortunately, Liu Hongyu was only Spin, and the position still belonged to him.

But the bad news is... Leclerc has already chased after him.

"Push, Push. Charles (Leclerc) has already rushed over." Marcus hurriedly reminded.

After Liu Hongyu accelerated and pushed a few laps, Leclerc, who was on soft tires in the back, was still faster after all, and he had bitten behind him within a second.

"George (Russell) is in front of you, George is in front of you. Speed up and see if you can catch up to him in a second. Marcus reminded.

A few laps later, Liu, who was gradually chasing behind Russell, chose to pick up the pace moderately to shake off Leclerc, after all, Leclerc's soft tires had begun to wear out.

On lap 35, Stroll and Alonso, who had just finished changing tires, had an accident, and both stopped the track. There was a safety car at the race.

“Box,Box.” The team chose to pit Liu Hongyu.

After switching to the new soft tyres, it took a full 15 laps for the crew to clean up the two retired cars and debris.

On lap 51, Verstappen started to accelerate on the straight after a little press, with Pérez and Hamilton following behind.

Liu Hongyu directly accelerated Russell when the green flag began to wave, but Russell didn't want to lose this position and chose to counterattack. But neither of them got any benefit from doing this, and Leclerc, who was behind, seized the opportunity to overtake him directly.

Liu Hongyu: "Why has my business as the sixth child been robbed these years?" ”

After speeding away Russell, Liu Hongyu began to chase Leclerc, who was using a neutral tire in front of him.

After two or three laps, Liu Hongyu turned on the DRS on the straight to try to overtake Leclerc, but the speed of the Ferrari was so fast that Liu Hongyu had no good way for a while.

"Accelerate and try to overtake him before your soft tyres start to fail." Marcus reminds in TR.

As soon as the words fell, Liu Hongyu overtook Leclerc with a late brake on the small straight in front of T7 and rose to fifth.

Finally, after a few laps at full speed, Liu Hongyu chose to slow down and concentrate on defending Leclerc behind him in the next five laps.

After two laps of the Crazy Draw, Leclerc tried to overtake Liu Hongyu on the outside on the big straight, but the speed was a little insufficient and he couldn't make it. But at the same time, Liu Hongyu's soft tires also began to decay.

"Drop the chain at a critical time..."Liu Hongyu looked at the left front tire in a high temperature and complained.

When passing successive corners, Liu Hongyu's left front wheel was directly locked, so Liu Hongyu's rhythm out of the corner was affected a little. Leclerc took the opportunity to catch up. After T4, the two pulled out of the corner side by side, but Liu Hongyu cut to the inside line and stuck the position, and Leclerc had no choice but to follow Liu Hongyu to find an opportunity.

On lap 62, Leclerc made another move on the starting straight, but Liu Hongyu drew a dragon in advance to block his line, and after exiting the corner, he stuck his position and did not allow Leclerc to successfully overtake.

On the last lap, Leclerc, who was short of fuel, simply swung up, so Liu Hongyu successfully brought back P5, and the best of the day after the race was given to Kimi, who rushed to P4.

Post-Race Standings:

P1 Verstappen +26 (plus one extra for the fastest lap)

P2 Pérez +18

P3 Hamilton +15

P4Kimi +12

P5 Liu Hongyu +10

P6 Leclerc +8

P7 Russell +6

P8 Ricardo +4

P9 Norris +2

P10 Bottas +1

The rest are: Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Tsunoda, O'Connell, Vettel, Schumacher Jr., Magnussen, Albon, Latifi, Alonso (retired), Stroll (retired), Sainz (retired)

Two weeks later, in the Miami Grand Prix, due to Pagani's fainting strategy and other teams also upgrading, Liu Hongyu stopped at P10 after entering Q3 and started behind Kimi.

Entering the race, the strategy given by the team was more faint, the tactics of two stops, and as a result, Liu Hongyu was directly called to pit stop before the window arrived, and then a large number of cars came out of the safety car and successfully made Liu Hongyu lose blood. But after the safety car ended, Liu Hongyu insisted on crazy overtaking on the big straight and rushed to seventh place.

After struggling to move up to fifth, the team put Liu Hongyu on the last soft tyre on lap 43, and after leaving the pit, he encountered the familiar Locks again. Nesta was able to pull himself off again in the early stages of the race.

On the 53rd lap, Liu Hongyu tried to do something to Leclerc, although the tail speed was a little insufficient, but after all, it was a soft tire, and it was more advantageous in the choice of braking point.

But in the next few laps, Leclerc's advantage of choosing neutral tires for the second stop came, and Liu Hongyu's soft tires that gradually began to wear out began to stop Leclerc, but he was still holding on.

"Don't make trouble..."Liu Hongyu looked at the gradually rising tire temperature of the front wheels, and suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart.

On lap 57, Liu Hongyu drew a dragon in advance on the big straight to avoid Leclerc with DRS from overtaking, but Leclerc rushed back to fifth place on the inside.

After following a few corners, Liu Hongyu took the inside line on the final big straight and braked late to regain fifth place at the expense of the front wing.

"A typical track accident, this can only be blamed on the lack of corner space..."Zhou Haoran analyzed.

After barely crossing the finish line, Liu Hongyu finished fifth again, while Verstappen and Pérez in the front row continued to take it back one or two, and Russell relied on strategy to barely beat Sainz to the podium.

Post-Race Standings:

P1 Verstappen +26 (plus one extra for the fastest lap)

P2 Pérez +18

P3 Russell +15

P4 Sainz +12

P5 Liu Hongyu +10

P6 Leclerc +8

P7 Hamilton +6

P8 Bottas +4

P9Kimi +2

P10 Albon +1

The rest are: Gasly, Ricardo, Norris, Zhou Guanyu, Tsunoda, Ocon, Vettel, Schumacher Jr., Magnussen, Latifi (retired), Alonso (retired), Stroll (retired)