Today, Qin Miao is still rubbing the plane, but this time it is Norris's.

Like Qin Miao, after a few days in Monaco, Norris also returned to the UK.

It happened that Norris was also preparing to go to Saudi Arabia this Wednesday, and when he was chatting in the driver group, Qin Miao sent a message to Norris, and he naturally got on the plane.

Departing in the morning and arriving in the afternoon, because it is direct, the speed is also fast.

After landing, the two separated and went to the hotel of their respective teams to report for duty.

The next process tends to be normal, Qin Miao has already experienced this process twenty times this year, and she can't be more familiar.

From the beginning of the green and dazed apprehension, to now this time is familiar with the road, rolling melons are ripe.

I have to say that in just one year, F1 has changed Qin Miao tremendously.

The most obvious and useful point is that Qin Miao has developed a sincere and friendly smile.

After returning to the hotel, we had a night's rest.

On Thursday, the competition week belonging to Qin Miao officially began.

Come to the track early, have breakfast first, and then walk the track.

It is worth mentioning that after walking the track, Qin Miao also met Norris, and then this forced to borrow Qin Miao's scooter.

Qin Miao had a feeling that after getting acquainted with herself, Norris no longer treated herself as an outsider.

In the afternoon, a media video was recorded, a fan meeting was held, and in the evening there was a dinner with local sponsors in Saudi Arabia, which was a less formal business event.

It is worth mentioning that these Middle Eastern tycoons are really rich, and two sponsors preliminarily finalized two sponsorship contracts with Mei Ben during the meal.

However, these have nothing to do with Qin Miao, anyway, in addition to his basic salary in the team, he only has a bonus to get.

Even if you sign a contract, you can't get a penny.

Friday, the day when the first and second exercises begin.

Today's weather in Saudi Arabia is still good, the air temperature is 28 ° C, the track temperature is 35 ° C, although the Jeddah Marina Circuit is by the sea, and the track is 50 meters away from the Red Sea, but due to Saudi environmental reasons, the air humidity is only 69%.

The good news is that the meteorological department has reported that there is no possibility of rain in the last week, so the probability of rain is only 20%.

Like the Qatar Grand Prix two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Corniche is a new addition to the F1 calendar this year.

This is the result of Saudi Arabia, a Middle Eastern country that realized that oil would not become the world's main energy source in the future, began to throw money around the world.

Because of the special terrain of the track in Saudi Arabia, this track is undoubtedly an extremely high-speed track.

This week's upgrade is also based on this, simplifying the car's windbreaker to make the car more stable at high speeds, and at the same time less drag, which can bring at least 5 kilometers of straight tail speed to the car.

The only downside was the loss of a little bit of downforce in cornering, but that loss was acceptable to the team.

Originally, the characteristics of the Mercedes race car were more inclined to straight acceleration, after all, the Mercedes engine was the most powerful engine in the entire paddock.

On such a track with many straights in Saudi Arabia, it is natural to give full play to its own advantages to the limit.

In addition to the upgrades to the car, there was also a bit of tension within the Mercedes team this week.

As it was approaching the end of the season, everyone was concerned about the points and positions of the two, including the two of them.

So at this time, the relationship between the two is very tense, and the communication is becoming less and less.

Toto was genuinely worried when he saw the tension between the two of them at the team meeting in the morning, and he was afraid of repeating the scene when Rosberg was fighting with Hamilton in the team.

Although both Hamilton and Qin Miao maintained basic restraint against their teammates at this time.

But Toto could clearly feel that at this time, countless powder kegs were already filled between the two, and no one could say when this powder keg would be detonated.

It could just be a disagreement between the two on the track over a swap of positions, or it could be a small quarrel within the team off the track.

This large pile of powder kegs between the two would be completely ignited, and whatever happened would be unacceptable to Toto and the Mercedes team.

So in order to prevent this from happening, Toto went to the lounge of the two riders before the start of practice on Friday, half to reassure and half to intimidate Verstappen with the points gap between the two at this time.

It can be regarded as a preventive shot for both of them.

In fact, there are times when Toto is quite grateful to Verstappen, after all, Verstappen's presence makes the two talented drivers in the Mercedes team dare not focus all their attention on each other.

Verstappen's presence is also a key factor in maintaining the harmonious atmosphere of the drivers in the Mercedes team at this time.

When I think about it, Toto also thinks that the world is so wonderful.

At noon, after lunch, Qin Miao took a nap, replenished his energy, and after waking up, he prepared for a while and came to a practice.

The races in the Middle East are held at the same time, with qualifying and the start of the race in the evening, so there isn't a lot of data that the team can collect during the first and third practice sessions, but there are quite a few test events that can be carried out, and it will also allow the drivers to familiarize themselves with the current race track.

At the same time, Qin Miao and Hamilton's cars were also equipped with at least 5 kilograms of data collection equipment before the start of the race.

The more the end of the season, the more critical the championship comes, the more things the Mercedes team wants to hide.

Until the final qualifying and main matches, it is impossible for Meiben to show all his strength.

After a practice, everyone was familiar with the track during the first period of time, after all, everyone had only run this track on the simulator.

So as soon as the practice began, Qin Miao changed into a set of hard tires and began a long-distance test.

The first normal flight lap after the warm-up lap, after running, Qin Miao had a feeling that the pressure on this track was still a bit high, compared with Qatar last week, the difficulty of this track was much higher, and it was not so cool to run.

Because there are very few heavy braking zones, the entire track can achieve 82% full throttle on its own.

It is worth mentioning that there is basically no buffer zone on this track, so after Qin Miao finished a lap, he knew that once there was an accident in this race, it would basically be either a yellow flag or a safety car, and if it was serious, it might be a red flag directly.

An hour later, the first practice ended.

Qin Miao ranked fifth with a score of 1:30.000.

There is no way, there are a lot of sensors in the car, I can't run fast, and I am familiar with the track, and I don't play with the advancement of life.

By the end of the first exercise, the sky had darkened, the sun had already crossed the horizon, and it was almost dark.

After resting for a while, Qin Miao ate some energy bars to replenish energy, and after looking at the data analysis of the first practice they gave to Franky, the second practice began.

At the beginning of the second training stage, Qin Miao used soft tires to come to the exit of the pit area and wait.

The team has also analyzed just now, although this track has a long starting straight, and the engine of the Mercedes Racing Car does have advantages in these places, but if there is no accident in this race, Qin Miao will not have the opportunity to start from the back row to overtake.

Therefore, the engine advantage is basically better than nothing in front of Hamilton and Verstappen, two drivers who are in competition with Qin Miao.

In other words, the final position of this race will be largely determined by qualifying.

If Qin Miao's qualifying results in this race are good enough, with the characteristics of this track, it is actually possible for Qin Miao to defend the drivers behind him from the beginning of the race until the end of the race.

During the break, Frankie and Qin Miao analyzed this point of view.

So at the beginning of the second practice, the track conditions were basically the same as the track conditions in the qualifying stage tomorrow night, and Qin Miao began to test and practice the qualifying lap.

Of course, still with sensors.

Even Qin Miao asked Barber to fill up the hydration bag of his racing car.

In the end, at the end of the second practice, Qin Miao's score came to 1:28.971.

This result is the first in the field.

To be honest, Qin Miao didn't know why he won the first place in the whole game in a good manner, you must know that she still has a certain amount of hiding at this time.

Back in the team's garage, it was only time to find out that Hamilton's fastest lap was on medium tyres.

It's the same with Verstappen.

Then it is not surprising.

After the second practice, Friday's work was over, and after packing up his things, Qin Miao left the paddock.

It is worth mentioning that on the way back to the hotel, Qin Miao saw many Asians wearing Meiben team uniforms waiting at the exit of the paddock on the side of the road.

At this time, the Asians who were willing to wear the Meiben team uniform were basically only Chinese.

Staying here at night, I guess it's my own car fan who wants to see myself up close.

Anyway, Qin Miao will be fine at this time, at most after returning to the hotel, he will watch the video at most, and then he will go to sleep and rest, so Qin Miao rolled down his window when he drove out and said hello to them.

Sure enough, after seeing Qin Miao, the group of people was obviously excited.

", Qin Miao!"

"Qin Miao, come on! You could win this tournament early! We're optimistic about you! ”

"Qin Miao is awesome!"

While shouting, they also waved the national flag they brought over and the flag with the same white 66 font as the one on Qin Miao's racing car.

Don't think too much about it, the people who can say this kind of thing at this time are definitely their own domestic fans.

Qin Miao smiled at them and replied, "I know, I'll do my best, it's not too early, you guys go back early to rest." ”

I don't know who replied after hearing Qin Miao's words: "Okay! ”

Qin Miao also smiled heartily when he heard it, but it was not easy to think that it was not easy for these fans to wait for him here at night, so Qin Miao glanced back at the co-pilot of his big G.

After taking out the masks and hats that the team had prepared for themselves, he handed them to them and said, "It's hard to come here at night, but remember to wear masks, these are for you." ”

For Qin Miao, these things were given to him by the team for nothing, and there was naturally no psychological burden on sending them out.

And these fans are waiting here mainly just to see Qin Miao, and even before coming here, their psychological expectation is just to look at Qin Miao from a distance through the car glass.

After all, as international students, the last thing they lack at this point in time is time.

Who would have thought that Qin Miao not only rolled down the window and chatted with them, but even gave them a hat and a few masks inside the Meiben team before leaving.

So when they took the things handed over by Qin Miao, they were all overjoyed.

After making sure that everything was delivered to them, Qin Miao waved his hand and said to them, "Go back early, I'll go back to the hotel to rest first." ”

After finishing speaking, Qin Miao drove away, but on the way back to the hotel, Qin Miao couldn't help but recall what these fans had said to him just now: "You may win this game in advance!" ”

"Win early...... Is it? Whispering, Qin Miao smiled a little bitterly.

Hamilton is still in his prime, and although he is at the end of his prime, his strength is still terrifying.

Although Hamilton's driving style is similar to Qin Miao's, the team's design for the W12 is actually based on Hamilton's driving habits.

Qin Miao was just stained with the same driving style as Hamilton.

Qin Miao is destined not to eat this bonus for too long, the two are just similar in driving style, not the same, and there are still obvious differences in some operating habits.

But fortunately, the W12 tuning window is good, and Qin Miao has always had the time and opportunity to adjust the car to the most comfortable state for himself to use.

As for the champions......... Do your best and let God do your best.

After returning to the hotel and making a video call with Qiu Meng for a while, Qin Miao also took a shower and rested early, after all, there is still a qualifying race to run tomorrow, and the qualifying race of this track is very important, so it is necessary to keep your spirits up.

The next day, Qin Miao came to the paddock again.

Today is different from yesterday, where at least half of the seats in the stands were empty, despite the large number of spectators.

But because of today's qualifying match, both the VIP area and the grandstand area where ordinary spectators sit are full.

It can be seen that the local people in Saudi Arabia are quite enthusiastic about the sport of F1, which is not difficult to understand, after all, the favorite way for these rich people to spend money is to buy, buy, buy, and buy a car is naturally one of them.

In the tourist area next to the Saudi Grand Prix, many car companies are releasing their new cars.

There is an advantage to issuing a new car here, that is, these local tyrants in Saudi Arabia will really place an order on the spot after they take a fancy to it.

It doesn't even matter how good your car is, but as soon as there is a point that attracts them a little, they will close their eyes and pay for it, after all, their money is really blowing in the wind.

After returning to the team, Qin Miao spent another busy three trainings.

At the end of the third session, Verstappen had run a time of 1:28.100, which was significantly faster than yesterday.

On the one hand, after three practice sessions, everyone is already familiar with the track, and on the other hand, because the temperature of the track has not cooled down at this time, the track can provide enough grip for the tires.

After the three trainings, Qin Miao finally adjusted the angle of the front nose wing of the car, slightly increasing it by 0.3°.

When the temperature began to reduce the performance of the track on the last lap, Qin Miao obviously felt that his car was a little understeer in low-speed corners, and he needed to slightly increase the grip of the front wheels to slightly strengthen the shortcomings in this regard.

After resting for two hours, Qin Miao put on a new set of racing clothes, pushed open the door of the team's house and walked to the team's P room.

Half an hour later, it was time for the qualifying session to start, and Qin Miao needed to go to the team house to prepare.

After so long in F1, Qin Miao also knows that sometimes drivers still get the paddock and stay by the engineers of their own crew.

As long as you're there, even if you're fishing for nothing, your presence is enough to give your crew's mechanics a sense of confidence.

Therefore, Qin Miao usually appears in the P room of the team some time in advance.

Half an hour later, the qualifying session officially began.

At this time, Qin Miao had already put on his equipment and entered the racing car.

The Meiben team was still not in a hurry to compete for the first time to get out, and the team waited until the drivers of the other teams left the pit lane before finding a gap to release Qin Miao and Hamilton together.

In the first flight lap, Qin Miao's score came to 1:28.501.

To be honest, this result is not too fast for a driver of Qin Miao's level.

But despite this, Qin Miao can also rely on this result to enter Q2 safely.

So in the next other flight lap, Qin Miao didn't change the tires, but ran another flight lap with this set of old soft tires.

Although this is just an old set of soft tires, after Qin Miao ran this flight lap, the result was refreshed again, with a score of 1:28.450.

Although it is only 0.05 seconds faster, it can be seen that Qin Miao still has a lot of room for improvement in the performance area.

After making this result, Qin Miao's ranking temporarily came to fifth.

After this lap, Qin Miao didn't continue to run, and returned directly to the P room of the team.

Finally, at the end of Q1, Qin Miao advanced to Q2 with fifth, and it is worth mentioning that Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton also did not use all his strength in Q1 in this game, and he advanced to Q2 with a score of 1:28.466 and a sixth result.

In the end, the drivers eliminated in Q1 were: Latifi, Vettel, Stroll, Mick Schumacher, Mazepin.

In fact, the overall performance of Martin's car is not bad, but due to the problem of the team's design concept, Martin's car can not play much on this kind of high-speed track, so it is not incomprehensible that Martin's car was eliminated in Q1 early.

In Q2, Qin Miao and Hamilton both changed into neutral tires.

Tomorrow, in the main event, Qin Miao and Hamilton are both ready to start on neutral tires.

In addition to the two of them, Red Bull also had the same idea, with Verstappen and Sergio Pérez also opting to run Q2 on medium tyres.

At the end of Q2, Hamilton finished first with a time of 1:27.750.

Hamilton's performance on the neutral tyre was faster than Qin Miao's flight lap on the soft tyre in the Q1 stage.

In the end, the drivers who were eliminated in Q2 were: Ricardo, Kimi, Alonso, Russell, Sainz.

In Q3, there weren't so many cars on the track, so there was no traffic jam or slow cars when running flying laps.

At the beginning of Q3 of this race, Qin Miao found that the car was experiencing the problem of tire heating.

Because it was completely dark now, the temperature of the track dropped quickly after losing direct sunlight, and the little residual daytime temperature on the track after Q1 and Q2 was completely gone.

So just after arriving at the warm-up circle, Qin Miao obviously felt that the grip of his tires was basically the same as nothing.

In order to avoid accidents due to insufficient temperature on the tires when running the flight lap, Qin Miao ran an extra flight lap.

It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton did not do this.

So Qin Miao was running on this warm-up lap when he heard Frankie's voice from the team's TR: "Hamilton's tire temperature is not bad enough, do you want to run one more warm-up tire...... Well, I just didn't see it.

That's right, it's right to run an extra warm-up lap. ”

The flight lap that Hamilton skidded and made a mistake because the tire temperature was not warm enough was naturally wasted, and although Qin Miao's flight lap encountered a little traffic problem because of running an extra warm-up lap, the speed after the run was not bad, with a score of 1:28.123.

For the time being, it came to the second.

After returning to the team's P room for a short rest, Hamilton came out first.

This time he didn't hold it up so much, and ran two warm-up laps.

After the final lap, Hamilton was at full strength.

After crossing the line with a time of 1:27.511, Hamilton moved to first place after the lap.

Before he finished speaking, half a minute later, Qin Miao also completed the last flight lap of his race, and his score was 1:27.612 after crossing the line.

The results are not bad, but for Qin Miao, this lap was run out after he tried his best, basically he did everything, and he was satisfied to get a second Qin Miao in the end.

Among the next three champions, only Verstappen did not make an effective lap, and his first flying lap was only third, behind Qin Miao.

Verstappen, who knows how terrifying Qin Miao's defensive ability is, is very Qin Chu, and in a track like Jeddah, where it is difficult to overtake, it will be embarrassing if he does not run his position well in qualifying.

Because then all the expectations are pinned on the start of Sunday's race.

In case he doesn't get up well and falls behind Qin Miao, then this race, and even this season's drivers' championship, will most likely have nothing to do with him.

So the last flying lap was crucial for Verstappen.

Soon, Verstappen's last lap crossed the line 20 seconds before Q3 stopped.

Verstappen's last flying lap officially begins. (End of chapter)