Chapter 980 382: Pan: I Believe in Ferrari's Ability to Mess Things Up

Anyway, soon I'll be able to use DRS, and overtaking Qin Miao will just be a matter of time.

Although it sounds like a lot, the time from Verstappen pulling out to hitting the brakes was just a split second.

At the very moment Verstappen hit the brakes, Qin Miao suddenly floored the gas, reaching the optimal position before starting to slow down into the corner.

Because of this sudden acceleration, Verstappen, who was pulling out, was overtaken by Qin Miao, and after entering the corner, Qin Miao just slotted in front of Verstappen.

Normally, Verstappen could have reacted to this sudden change, but because he had just braked, his mind was stuck in a thought pattern focusing on how to exit the corner better to get closer to Qin Miao ahead. He hadn't considered that Qin Miao would suddenly start accelerating.

As a result, Qin Miao's entry into the corner was about 0.2 seconds faster than Verstappen's.

By the time Verstappen reacted, it was already too late.

The 0.2-second gap between him and Qin Miao widened to 0.5 seconds due to a sudden brake and acceleration.

But this was not the end. After exiting turns T14 and T15, Verstappen seemed a bit anxious and gave too much throttle exiting T15, causing the rear wheels to slip briefly.

Now, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen exiting the corner and up to the DRS detection point was at most only 0.6 seconds.

But due to this slip, Qin Miao passed the DRS detection point first, one second before Verstappen.

This lap, Qin Miao managed to hold on fairly easily.

In fact, that step on the brakes was intentional by Qin Miao, but he only had two thoughts at that time.

On one hand, he wanted to let Verstappen pass before the DRS detection point, using his ERS to reclaim the position in the DRS zone.

Another consideration was that if Verstappen forcibly entered the inside line, he could use track position advantage to squeeze him off the circuit.

The third option was indeed something Qin Miao hadn't anticipated beforehand, but he had been closely observing Verstappen, and when he noticed Verstappen also braked early like him, he promptly accelerated.

It could even be said that Qin Miao's toolbox gained another strategy due to Verstappen's early brake.

Meanwhile, Verstappen was gritting his teeth slightly, feeling a bit frustrated while staring at Qin Miao's rear.

He fell into the trap again, but in a way he hadn't even imagined.

However, just as Verstappen was slightly losing his cool, the track engineer GP's voice came through his radio: "Max, stay calm. Our lap time is quicker than Qin Miao's, overtaking him is just a matter of time. Stay behind Qin Miao, and after turn T16, it will be easy to overtake him in the start/finish straight DRS zone."

The track engineer GP's voice directly snapped Verstappen back to attention.

After taking a few deep breaths, Verstappen replied, "Copy that."

Then Verstappen just followed behind Qin Miao, charging his car's battery, without putting any pressure on Qin Miao.

Qin Miao was preparing intently and suddenly realized Verstappen became docile.

After thinking for a moment, Qin Miao deduced Verstappen's intention, smirking to himself, buddy, this won't do, if you don't charge forward, how can I comfortably defend against you?

Then, during the 5th lap, Qin Miao reduced his lap time by 0.2 seconds per lap.

Under this lap time, the gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc continued to widen.

Seeing this, Verstappen was no longer anxious, for after all, when you have many debts, you don't worry; when there are many fleas, they don't itch.

By the 4th lap, the gap between Qin Miao and the ahead Leclerc had already reached 5 seconds.

Such a large gap isn't something that can be made up in a short time, so Verstappen opted to focus all his attention on conquering this mountain, Qin Miao.

As for the seemingly unattainable Ferrari ahead...

Though Verstappen isn't one to pin his hopes on luck, today, for some reason, he's willing to trust his luck for this race.

After all, it's Ferrari we're talking about; never doubt Ferrari's ability to pull stunts at crucial moments.

In terms of disappointing fans, Ferrari never fails.