Chapter 1076 - 411: Back-to-Back Championships

On lap 60, the race restarted.

At this time, Qin Miao had an 11-second gap to Leclerc behind him.

At this moment, both Leclerc and Verstappen had switched to medium tires that had completed 4 laps.

Next, they needed to catch up with Qin Miao and overtake him within the remaining 11 laps of the race.

But to the annoyance of Ferrari and Red Bull, Qin Miao’s soft tires still hadn’t shown a significant drop in grip, and in this lap right after exiting the pit lane, neither Leclerc nor Verstappen could catch up with Qin Miao!

Qin Miao’s lap time was even 0.3 seconds faster than Leclerc’s.

Not to mention Verstappen, whose lap time wasn’t as quick as Leclerc’s.

Of course, this was actually a tire temperature issue.

Leclerc and Verstappen had just come out of the pit lane, and although they tried their best to maintain the tire temperature during the Virtual Safety Car, the lap times under the Virtual Safety Car were not fast enough, so their medium tires hadn’t reached the optimal working temperature.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao’s soft tires remained at the right temperature, so after the Virtual Safety Car, he could continuously accelerate and decelerate to use the heat radiation of the brake discs to maintain the tire temperature.

And this way, the tires wouldn’t be overly worn.

Therefore, when restarting, the grip of Qin Miao’s car tires was stronger than the other two.

However, by lap 63, Qin Miao had practically lost his speed advantage over the two behind him.

At this time, Leclerc could gain 0.3 seconds on Qin Miao in each lap.

However, the time gap between them was still 12 seconds, so Qin Miao didn’t need to worry about his position for a while.

"Qin Miao, currently our soft tire wear is within expectations, keep it up, we can finish the race before Leclerc catches up."

"Copy that."

In every subsequent lap, Frankie would inform Qin Miao via the team radio about the remaining time gap between him and Leclerc.

Actually, Qin Miao quite hoped that Verstappen could try to attack Leclerc, as that would have relieved some of the pressure off him.

But the Ferrari cars were simply fast in this race, and Verstappen couldn’t pose any threat to Leclerc on this track.

The time gap between them remained at 2.7 seconds without much change.

Lap 65, Qin Miao received a piece of not-so-good good news via the team radio.

"Qin Miao, it seems that Leclerc’s car has a problem with the throttle pedal, which is stuck at 20% throttle output for a long time and can’t return to normal. We estimate it’s a mechanical fault with the Ferrari. We’ll notify you immediately if there are any other situations."

Qin Miao was taken aback, is Ferrari messing up again?

After reaching the straight, Qin Miao asked, "How’s his speed?"

Frankie hesitated for a moment before replying, "His speed has slowed down, but not too much, from losing 0.9 seconds per lap to 0.7 seconds per lap. But don’t worry, at this chasing speed, Leclerc won’t catch you before the race ends."

"Copy that, keep monitoring for me."

...

Lap 69, two laps remain until the end of the race, and Leclerc was already 4 seconds behind Qin Miao. The rate at which he was closing in on Qin Miao, due to the constant wear of Qin Miao’s soft tires, had increased to 1.1 seconds per lap.

By this point, many fans of Qin Miao and Mercedes finally let out a sigh of relief.

"With just the last two laps, the 4-second gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc seems... Qin Miao still needs to persist! The journey of a hundred miles is half done at ninety—Qin Miao must hang on to the very end," said Bing from Five-Star Sports, who started with a congratulatory tone for Qin Miao taking another race victory, but quickly changed his tune.

Zhou Haoran and Xia smiled at each other upon hearing this.

In the past, Five-Star Sports didn’t care if they jinxed a driver to a loss.

Back then, there were no drivers in the paddock they particularly cared about, and even different commentators had different favorite drivers, so they spoke freely without reservations.

But now, with Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu, the commentators have learned to be restrained when drivers are on the brink of significant achievements.

They’re just afraid something might go wrong.

In the last two laps, Qin Miao maintained quite a good pace.

It’s because Leclerc’s medium tires were much fresher than Qin Miao’s that he was under such pressure now.

In the final lap, Qin Miao actually wanted to go all out, but the team warned over the radio, "Don’t take unnecessary risks, just complete this last lap at a stable and normal speed, Leclerc won’t catch up."

A bit anxious in his heart, Qin Miao restrained his emotions and steadily completed the final lap.

Finally, as the checkered flag waved, Qin Miao was the first to cross the finish line.

Toto and all the Mercedes team members let out a long breath of relief at that moment, and naturally, celebrations ensued.

The commentators from Five-Star Sports could finally relax, clapping and saying excitedly, "Let’s congratulate Qin Miao! After half a season of slump, the team finally returns to where it belongs with Qin Miao’s exceptional tire management skills to clinch the Austrian Grand Prix victory. The most important thing is, this is Qin Miao’s first consecutive win of the 2022 season."