Chapter 936 371: Qin · Train Driver · Defense Master · Red Bull's Greatest Nemesis · Miao

Alonso, who didn't pit, brought a big problem to Qin Miao. Without Alonso pitting, Qin Miao couldn't try to attack Verstappen ahead.

The safety car lasted from lap 24 until the end of lap 26, with the top lights going out as the race was about to restart.

After the restart, Qin Miao's start rhythm was very stable. It can even be said that Qin Miao's start reaction speed was faster than Alonso's, but because Leclerc's start position was at the curve's apex, and Leclerc started just as Qin Miao was at the braking point, Qin Miao couldn't pose any threat to Alonso ahead after the start.

However, the Alonso ahead of Qin Miao was using hard tires—26-lap-old hard tires—so Qin Miao's attempt to overtake Alonso wouldn't put him under much pressure.

Still, Qin Miao kept a sharp eye and didn't overtake Alonso immediately after the race restarted.

Because Perez behind him was continuously pressuring him.

Though Qin Miao could defend against Perez's attacks with the grip advantage of his medium tires, prolonged defense will lead to failure; the gap in car performance is evident, and Qin Miao had no confidence that he could continue defending against Perez once his medium tires started degrading.

This season's cars are designed with ground effect floors, making it easier for the trailing car to follow compared to last season.

So Qin Miao started using his brain, directly giving up on the possibility of overtaking Alonso, slowing down to maintain a distance of around 0.6 seconds from Alonso.

Technically, this distance could be closer, but Qin Miao kept it slightly further not to put too much pressure on Alonso.

(He's truly too gentle, I'm crying)

Qin Miao actually thought too much. With Alonso's years of racing experience, he could roughly judge that Qin Miao had no intention of overtaking him, so he wouldn't focus his attention too much on Qin Miao, instead concentrating on his own long-distance pace.

Experienced people sometimes have such keen insight.

Following this, both Alonso and Qin Miao formed a temporary alliance on the track, pulling a DRS train behind them.

Seeing Qin Miao's actions, Perez felt some frustration. Last season, the drivers from the Red Bull camp were using the DRS train to defend against Qin Miao, but who knew this season it would be reversed? Truly, the wheel of fortune turns; thirty years east, thirty years west.

And not only was Perez blocked by Qin Miao using the DRS of the car in front, Hamilton behind was soon part of this DRS train too, as were those behind Hamilton, including Magelsen.

As for Qin Miao's earlier ambition to catch up to Verstappen?

Gone, if he wasted effort, he might not even keep his podium spot, let alone fight for second place.

Did you notice the race had only restarted for two laps, and the time gap between Alonso and Leclerc was already five seconds? Even the gap to Verstappen was three seconds.

So Qin Miao thought it was more pragmatic to aim for third place.

The audience could see the leading group quickly pulling away from Alonso and the others on the track.

With Alonso providing DRS ahead, and Qin Miao executing some blocking maneuvers at corner exits, limiting Perez's entry path, he effectively protected his tires and locked Perez behind.

Seeing this, Bing and others couldn't help but exclaim: "This is Qin Miao, our Chinese F1 world champion, even without a top-tier car, he can utilize everything around him to turn them into his advantage."

By lap 32, there were already seven cars within Alonso's DRS zone.

Naming them: Qin Miao, Perez, Hamilton, Magelsen, Norris, Ricardo, Albon.

All this was orchestrated by Qin Miao. Once he blocked Perez, Hamilton in the DRS zone couldn't launch an effective attack on Perez ahead, even with DRS, because Perez also had DRS.

The situation was similar for the cars behind Hamilton.

In summary, this DRS train kept extending.

By now, the time gap between Alonso and Leclerc in front had expanded to ten seconds.

Of course, from some standpoint, the time gap was irrelevant; with no unforeseen events in the race, those ten seconds couldn't be reclaimed no matter what.

Still, as the orchestrator, Qin Miao received complaints from drivers in the DRS train behind through the teams' TRs.

Surely, their complaints wouldn't reach Qin Miao's ears.

But just as everyone thought Qin Miao would drive this DRS train until Alonso pitted.

In lap 39, Verstappen suddenly stopped near Matthew's corner.

From the aerial view, smoke was visible billowing from the rear engine of Verstappen's car, and when Verstappen went to check, he found the engine actually on fire—clearly a Honda engine issue similar to Bahrain.

A virtual safety car appeared on track, but since there was no debris, the race wouldn't deploy a physical safety car.