And it is worth mentioning that after Verstappen entered the P room of the Red Bull Racing team after T1 made a mistake, Horner was just a little irritated with his hands, but he was not too anxious.

But with Qin Miao also surpassing Verstappen, Horner was really anxious.

In the replay of the director's broadcast, the audience saw Horner holding the microphone of his headphones and saying something, frowning and trotting from the team P room to the command platform, probably ready to give instructions to the team.

When Mercedes replaced Bottas this season, Horner and Red Bull were quite happy, after all, after Bottas left, Red Bull had one less confidant.

But after Qin Miao really appeared on the field, Horner found out how good Bottas was.

Although Bottas's lap speed and qualifying results were indeed impressive, in the main race stage, Bottas's offensive and defensive abilities were indeed relatively average, and even a little weak.

Qin Miao is different, his qualifying speed may not be as fast as Bottas, but it can be called first-class, at the same time, Qin Miao's long-distance rhythm in the main race is very good, but Qin Miao's most outstanding ability is to protect the tire, attack and defend.

After seeing Qin Miao's performance on the field, Horner also knew why Qin Miao was able to be favored by Toto.

And I also regret a little, I was not so firm when I chose Qin Miao, and I believe that Marco now has the same feeling as Horner.

It was precisely because Horner knew Qin Miao's strength that after seeing Verstappen being surpassed by Qin Miao, Horner immediately ordered Verstappen to surpass Qin Miao in the shortest possible time, and not to get entangled with him for too long.

But that's not something you can just say.

Verstappen also knew that Qin Miao was the biggest obstacle on his way to winning the championship in this game, but it was really difficult to surpass him.

However, Pan Zi is Pan Zi after all, although it is very hard, but in the sixth lap, he still relied on DRS to surpass Qin Miao.

However, after he turned over Qin Miao, Hamilton in front of him had already pulled away for more than three seconds.

At the same time, Qin Miao was still biting Verstappen's back, putting pressure on Verstappen from time to time.

On the other hand, Pérez has been protecting the tires from the beginning, focusing on a thick hair, so he was gradually pulled away by the three people in front of him.

The race came to 15 laps, and the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was narrowed to 1.9 seconds, and Qin Miao was still in the DRS area behind Verstappen, and the tire condition was better than Verstappen.

And Pérez, who was originally protecting the tire, had been pulled away by Qin Miao for 7 seconds.

And in these 7 seconds, Perez found that something was wrong and began to chase Qin Miao without protecting the tire and being pulled away.

If he keeps going, the gap will be even greater.

At this time, Red Bull was in a headache because of Verstappen's pit stop problem.

Verstappen has Hamilton in front of him and Qin Miao in the back, while teammate Sergio Pérez can't make any difference.

At this time, whether Verstappen is the first or the last pit stop, Mercedes has a corresponding strategy and can easily hold Verstappen.

On the eighteenth lap, in the anxious waiting of Red Bull, it was finally Mei Ben who took the lead, Hamilton pitted, and Qin Miao was still hanging behind Verstappen, and the pressure action became more and more intense.

It's hard to believe that after running for so long, Qin Miao's tires still have enough grip, and the speed is not too slow.

On the nineteenth lap, considering the possibility that Hamilton would gradually widen the gap with Verstappen after changing to new hard tyres, as well as the continuous harassment of Qin Miao behind him, Red Bull could only passively choose to let Verstappen pit first.

And at this point in time, the speed of the new hard tires is already faster than the old medium tires.

Verstappen's pit stop at one o'clock in the evening will make it difficult for him to win the title again.

After Verstappen came out, he was still behind Hamilton, and even Hamilton opened up a little bit of the gap between him and the car behind, which was mainly due to Qin Miao's tireless harassment and pressure behind Verstappen.

After the No. 1 drivers of the two major teams pitted, only the No. 2 drivers of the two teams were left at the front of the track to fight for the title of tyre master.

On lap 20, Verstappen started to move on Hamilton as the tyre temperature came up.

There is a difference in speed between Mercedes and Red Bull, but it is not big, and the driver can make up for it on his own.

The only thing that is a little uncomfortable is that when following the driver in front of you into a corner, the car behind will reduce its downforce by up to 50% due to the turbulence from the car in front.

So for a short period of time, all Verstappen could do was follow Hamilton and put pressure on him, but there were basically no overtaking opportunities that could be found.

On lap 24, Qin Miao had already pulled away from Perez for more than 10 seconds at this time.

No way, with the same tires, Qin Miao's tire wear speed is much slower than Perez's, and the later the game, the more obvious the speed difference between the two sides.

Seeing this, Pérez did not continue to insist and chose to pit for tyres on this lap.

However, when it came out, it fell 18 seconds behind Hamilton and Verstappen, and the gap was not small.

On the twenty-fifth lap, Qin Miao was also called in by the team to change the tire.

However, to everyone's surprise, Qin Miao changed into a set of soft tires after entering.

Qin Miao became the only driver to use soft tyres in the main stage of the race.

The main reason is that after Qin Miao ran for so long, the team calculated a wave according to the wear curve of Qin Miao's tires and found that there was room for operation in yellow, red and yellow.

Even the yellow, red and yellow stops are faster than the first stop, and the only problem that needs to be faced is that when the driver in front of him can't pass after the pit stop, he is stuck in the position by the opponent, causing his tires to miss the best working window.

However, judging from Qin Miao's offensive ability in the last two games, the team chooses to believe in Qin Miao.

I also believe that Qin Miao can take responsibility.

After Pérez pitted, the team asked Qin Miao, and Qin Miao didn't have much opinion on the team's tactics, so since the team had mentioned it, he would pit and change tires according to the team's idea.

Then the audience saw Qin Miao's yellow to red.

After seeing this scene, the commentary directly asserted: "Qin Miao's game is going to be stopped twice!" ”

After coming out, Qin Miao landed more than 7 seconds behind Verstappen.

Then, everyone watched as if they were looking at a monster, and Qin Miao began to chase Verstappen and Hamilton at a speed of 1.6 seconds per lap.

The tires are good, the car tuning is perfectly set, and there is no dirty air, this is just Qin Miao's speed under normal driving conditions.

The only thing to worry about now is how many laps the soft tyres will last.

On the twenty-ninth lap exactly 4 laps later, Qin Miao came to a place 0.5 seconds behind Verstappen.

Verstappen really felt sick when he looked at Qin Miao who appeared behind him.

Why are you here again?

And Qin Miao didn't leave Verstappen much time to think at all, it only took a turn, and Verstappen, who was still constantly pressuring Hamilton just now, was surpassed by Qin Miao.

And the place where Qin Miao surpassed Verstappen was not in the DRS area, but in the long corners of T11, Qin Miao relied on the stronger tire grip and mechanical grip of his car, and directly ate Verstappen on the outside when cornering.

Qin Miao's overtaking purely by relying on the advantage of the car's grip saw that Verstappen had no temper at all.

Looking at Qin Miao, who had passed directly from outside him, Verstappen was still a little unwilling to ask in the team TR: "How many laps have Qin Miao's tires been used?" Why is there still such a strong grip now? ”

Red Bull is also confused, the grip of the normal medium tires began to enter the cliff point for eighteen laps, and Qin Miao's medium tires ran twenty-five laps, and the speed was only a little slower than the new hard tires of other drivers.

Now he has changed to soft tires, normally the durability of soft tires in Paul Ricard is only five or six laps, but Qin Miao's tire life has always been a mystery, and the ghost knows how many laps Qin Miao can use more than normal drivers.

Because he knew that his teammates were not running the same strategy as himself, after Qin Miao overtook Verstappen and came behind Hamilton, Hamilton chose to let Qin Miao go when he passed the DRS area of the starting straight.

After overtaking Hamilton with DRS, neither of them lost much speed.

Then Qin Miao ran four more laps on the track to thirty-three laps, and in these three laps, Qin Miao's speed was not as fast as when he was chasing Verstappen, but he was still one second faster than them per lap.

And after these three laps, Qin Miao felt that his soft tires couldn't hold it and was about to enter the cliff point, so Qin Miao made a pit stop on this lap.

In fact, Verstappen realized that he couldn't overtake Hamilton on the same tyres, so he had the idea of pitting for an old medium tyre to try to flip Hamilton.

But Qin Miao's variable is here, if Verstappen makes a pit stop and Qin Miao also pit away, Qin Miao will inevitably stand in front of Verstappen.

Without pitting stops, though, Verstappen's chances of overtaking Hamilton will become less and less likely as time goes on.

In the face of this need for change, Red Bull always tends to be more risky, but more rewarding game strategies.

Red Bull is not like Mercedes, they don't have a team or drivers' championship, they are a challenger.

So they are obviously more willing to fight at this last stage than slow death.

So at the same time that Qin Miao chose to pit stops, Red Bull also made the same choice and let Verstappen pit stop.

After Qin Miao came out, she changed into a set of neutral tires that ran five laps, while Verstappen changed into a set of neutral tires that ran seven laps.

However, these laps are all run during the practice session, and the degree of wear on the tyres is different from the laps at the beginning of the main race.

Because the wear and tear of the tires of the vehicle at the beginning of the race is greater, after all, the fuel of the car is full at that time, and the dead weight is naturally greater, and the wear and tear of the tires is more.

Now that the fuel on the two cars has basically run out of half, the car is lighter, and the load is naturally smaller.

So if you convert it, Qin Miao's tires that have run five laps are actually worn out a little more than two laps, and Verstappen's four laps.

Naturally, you can last longer on the track.

After coming out, Qin Miao began to chase the two drivers in front of him, while Verstappen kept following Qin Miao to find opportunities.

On lap 35, Qin Miao overtook Pérez.

Pérez originally wanted to defend Qin Miao's wave, but it was relatively easy to overtake on the Paul Ricard circuit, not to mention that Qin Miao was using new neutral tires at this time, while Pérez was using old hard tires.

Therefore, Qin Miao thought that surpassing Perez was just a matter of DRS.

After overtaking Pérez, Qin Miao began to chase Hamilton 13 seconds in front of her, and there were still eighteen laps before the end of the race.

The speed at which Qin Miao pursued Hamilton was 1.9 seconds per lap, and the speed at which Verstappen pursued Qin Miao was 0.2 seconds per lap.

Of course, the pursuit speed of the two of them can't be so fast all the time, and the consumption of tires on this track is still relatively large, so the gap becomes smaller the further back you go.

However, Red Bull and Mercedes were willing to pit for the two drivers to change their tyres, which must have been calculated before they let the drivers in, and by the end of the race, the medium tyres would still be faster than Hamilton's hard tyres.

In terms of Qin Miao's defensive ability, Verstappen's pursuit speed of 0.2 seconds per lap is not a little pressure to defend.

But after tasting the taste of winning the championship, Qin Miao's heart began to gradually yearn for the highest podium again.

And Hamilton naturally put pressure on the team in the team's TR, wanting Qin Miao to help him defend Verstappen.

Regardless of the relationship outside the field, Hamilton will not talk about feelings with anyone on the field, there is only success and defeat here.

If Qin Miao is replaced by Bottas, then there is no need for Hamilton to remind him, and the team will take the initiative to make this request to Bottas.

But this is Qin Miao, a driver who is younger than Hamilton, but his strength is not much worse, and he has higher growth potential.

Although no one has said it within Meiben, Toto clearly knows that Qin Miao is the guarantee of Meiben's future competitiveness after Hamilton's retirement.

Therefore, at this time, the team naturally would not convey such a team instruction to Qin Miao.

However, they couldn't refuse Hamilton's request in front of him, so they reassured Hamilton in TR and told him not to think so much and run at his own pace.

Forty-ninth lap after fourteen laps.

Qin Miao finally came to the DRS area behind Hamilton, and Verstappen was in the DRS area behind Qin Miao.

Verstappen himself knew that although it was not impossible to surpass Qin Miao, he would waste a lot of time on the way to pursue Hamilton.

And looking at Qin Miao's meaning, he also had the intention of chasing Hamilton, Verstappen simply followed Qin Miao's back to protect the tire, and when he chased Hamilton, he stood up and started to attack, so that on the one hand, he protected his tires, and on the other hand, he also avoided wasting time and tires on the track with Qin Miao.

And now it's time for Verstappen to get ready to get his hands dirty.

(End of chapter)