Chapter 1077 - 411: Back-to-Back Championships (Part 2)

"It’s not easy, Qin Miao followed Leclerc and Verstappen for almost the entire race."

"But fortunately, in this race, it was still Qin Miao’s terrifying tire-preserving ability that laughed last."

"Congratulations to Qin Miao! And congratulations to Mercedes!"

...

The final race rankings and points are as follows:

P1: Qin Miao +26 (Fastest Lap)

P2: Leclerc +18

P3: Verstappen +14

P4: Hamilton +12

P5: Perez +10

P6: O’Kang +8

P7: Zhou Guanyu +6

P8: Mick +4

P9: Norris +2

P10: Magelsen +1

After adding the points from the sprint race, the driver’s total points situation is as follows:

1: Qin Miao +31

2: Leclerc +25

3: Verstappen +22

4: Hamilton +13

5: Perez +14

6: O’Kang +11

7: Zhou Guanyu +6

8: Sainz +6

9: Mick +4

10: Magelsen +3

11: Norris +2

After this race, the driver’s total championship standings are as follows:

1: Qin Miao.185

2: Verstappen.156

3: Leclerc.156

4: Perez.138

5: Sainz.94

6: Hamilton.77

7: Norris.52

8: O’Kang.50

9: Bottas.38

10: Magelsen.19

11: Zhou Guanyu.19

12: Gasly.15

13: Alonso.15

14: Vettel.14

15: Ricardo.12

16: Tsunoda.9

17: Mick.6

18: Albon.1

19: Stroll.1

After this race, Qin Miao has widened his points gap with Verstappen and Leclerc.

On the other hand, Hamilton got a familiar yet unfamiliar points total.

At the same time, Zhou Guanyu’s good performance in the race phase earned him a decent total points ranking.

Of course, the unluckiest has to be Russell. So far, there have been 11 Grands Prix and due to the limitations of the Williams car performance, he’s always hovering at the entrance of the points zone, never having a chance to explore it.

He’s also the only driver this season who hasn’t scored any points.

After this race, the team standings are as follows:

1: Red Bull: 314

2: Mercedes: 305

3: Ferrari: 274

4: Alpine: 77

5: McLaren: 64

6: Alfa Romeo: 64

7: Haas: 25

8: AlphaTauri: 24

9: Aston Martin: 16

10: Williams: 1

After the race, despite the decent performance of Mercedes’ two drivers today, on the team’s total standings, Mercedes still hasn’t surpassed Red Bull, with the total points gap between the two teams reduced to just 9 points.

On the other hand, thanks to Zhou Guanyu’s excellent performance today, Alfa Romeo’s total points are now tied with McLaren, and if Zhou Guanyu and Bottas can continue their early-season form in the upcoming races,

Alfa Romeo is likely to achieve the team’s best performance in recent seasons, at least making fifth in the team standings.

Moreover, it’s worth noting that at this point, the total points difference between Alpine and Alfa Romeo is only 13 points.

Additionally, Zhou Guanyu has recently beaten his teammate Bottas in both qualifying and race phases.

Sauber has recently released clear signals praising Zhou Guanyu and has expressed a willingness to offer Zhou Guanyu a long-term contract.

After crossing the finish line, although Verstappen only secured third place in this race, Austrian fans on site still set off the iconic orange smoke of the Red Bull Ring after the finish.

At least, regardless, Verstappen made it to the podium in this race.

Of course, during the parade after the race, Qin Miao clearly felt that the cheers from the audience were much less than when Verstappen won twice at his home track last season, even in places with not many local fans, there wasn’t much cheering.

"P1, Qin Miao, we are P1, this race went as well as always, congratulations kid, enjoy everything that’s yours." The first to communicate with Qin Miao on the team radio was not Frankie, but Toto.

It was evident that following a disastrous start for Mercedes, the back-to-back victories had Toto in high spirits for quite some time.

Besides Toto, everyone on the team was very excited, clenching their fists and celebrating with high-fives.

"The upgrade from last week was significantly effective, and the driving experience of the car has greatly improved." Qin Miao also smiled and replied like this.

But to be honest, before the start of this race, Qin Miao never thought he could win another race; he only aimed to get into the top three, secure a podium place, and continue improving his record of beating his teammate Hamilton internally.

This championship is also an unexpected joy for Qin Miao.

Driving back to the pits, Qin Miao parked his car right at the center spot.

After the car was parked, the broadcast camera focused on Qin Miao.

Seeing him remove the steering wheel of the car, and then unfasten the headrest to climb out of the car, standing on his racing sandals and raising his right hand high, showing the gesture of one.

At that moment, all the photographers and reporters on site aimed their cameras at the reigning champion from China.

After standing on the sandals and celebrating with his unbelievable balance for a while, Qin Miao jumped right off, inadvertently kicking the steering wheel he hadn’t reinstalled on the car yet.

"Hey, hey, hey, be careful." Bing got startled watching this, afraid Qin Miao would accidentally step on the steering wheel and take a fall while jumping off.

Although Qin Miao and these F1 drivers have better physical conditioning than most people, still, now Qin Miao is regarded as a beloved figure among domestic fans, and no one wishes for an accident that would keep him from racing.

Qin Miao looked a bit dumbfounded at the steering wheel that got kicked flying, and quickly ran over to pick it up.

F1 steering wheels are actually very light, as besides the electronic components and circuit board display inside, the rest is made from carbon fiber, making it naturally not heavy.

Of course, after getting kicked and rolling on the ground for two circles, the steering wheel would inevitably have some scratches.

After checking it over, except for a few scratches, everything else was okay, saving at least 100,000 US dollars in steering wheel repair costs.

Breathing a sigh of relief and learning his lesson, Qin Miao quickly turned around and reinstalled the steering wheel back on the car.

Of course, a minor accident or episode wouldn’t affect Qin Miao and his teammates’ celebration.

When Qin Miao rushed into the crowd, Frankie and the others laughed even louder.

After giving Reyes a big hug, Qin Miao greeted each of his pit crew members and then arrived at Toto.

"Well done, but just be careful next time, the steering wheel isn’t cheap either," Toto said jokingly, laughing while patting Qin Miao’s back.

Qin Miao could only shake his hand with a smile and helplessly say, "I’ll be careful in the next race, or the team could invest more in steering wheel protection, aiming to let me play darts with it."

"I’ll consider it, and after returning to the team headquarters this week, I’ll propose this at the post-race meeting."

...

After joking around with Toto, Qin Miao initially planned to say hi to Le the Second, and then proceed to the weigh-in and post-race interviews.

But Qin Miao saw his mom at the edge of the Mercedes crowd.

When Qin Miao first quit his job, his mom used to complain about not being used to this lifestyle, saying every day was too idle.

But once she got used to it, she obviously started enjoying it.

After spending a few months familiarizing herself with the foreign environment and practicing her English to the point of normal communication, she began traveling around.

Of course, Qin Miao knew that abroad is not the same as domestically, so he hired a bodyguard for her, who is, of course, a girl rumored to be a domestic armed police veteran, which Qin Miao didn’t have the means to verify.

However, Qin Miao found it quite challenging when arm-wrestling her, though he ultimately won, it took quite an effort.

In the end, Qin Miao agreed.

At this point, his mom should be traveling, and Qin Miao honestly didn’t expect to see her here.

PS. I’ve got a few things to keep me busy recently, so it’s only 4K today. Starting tomorrow, the regular update pace will resume.