Schumacher's physical condition in this race is extremely poor, his reaction time has significantly declined. If it were any other driver, not to mention getting into Q3, simply managing not to crash in Q1 would be quite remarkable.

The Mercedes Team's data analysts even discovered that Schumacher forcefully changed his driving habits to adapt to his physical decline.

No longer precisely adjusting the brakes upon entering corners and completing control of the entire bend all at once, drawing a beautiful arc. Instead, he opted for later, more aggressive braking, relying on corrections within the corner to manage the car's dynamic changes.

Simply put, it's now the tactic that Chen Xiangbei is using.

But the problem for Chen Xiangbei is that he has no choice; in his past life, he only had the skills of an F2 driver, coupled with the lack of a Chinese racing system, he barely got to experience many F1 circuits. Relying solely on high-intensity simulator training, it's still difficult to perform a perfect cornering in real races.

He can only rely on his innate sense of the car in this life, using corrections to manage minor flaws in cornering lines.

Even Trulli mentioned that completely transforming Chen Xiangbei requires the grind of time and the accumulation of track experience.

Yet the King of Cars is still the King of Cars, doing things similar to Trulli's. Driving the Mercedes W01 whose absolute performance is not as good as the TF110, coupled with the impact of old injuries on his state, he still courageously made it into the third qualifying session.

It can completely be described with the phrase "honorable defeat."

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the outside world, Schumacher's tenth place in the qualifying session is an unacceptable result, except for Chen Xiangbei, who has a god's perspective, and a few senior members of the Mercedes Team who are aware of his physical condition.

A legend, perhaps really has aged...

When the qualifying results were slowly communicated to the drivers via the radio, the overall atmosphere can be described as mixed emotions.

Many members of the HRT Team had already poured out of the pit box, standing at the repair station ready to greet Chen Xiangbei at first notice. However, watching other drivers successively return to the pits, they saw no sign of Chen Xiangbei and felt somewhat puzzled.

Odetto continued to stand in front of the monitoring screen and began to realize Chen Xiangbei was slowing down. He thought Chen Xiangbei was deliberately slowing his return lap to interact with the home audience, perhaps signaling by waving or something.

But he quickly noticed something was wrong, this speed is way too slow, right?

Even if you want to interact with the home audience, a brief gesture for pole is enough. For full celebration, one must wait for the race win.

Until Chen Xiangbei's car stopped at the escape pass, Odetto confirmed there was indeed an issue, and thus pressed the earpiece communication button to inquire.

"Xiangbei, what happened?"

There was no answer from the listening earpiece, and the live broadcast director also sensed something amiss, directly zooming in the camera to focus on Chen Xiangbei, who was seemingly fiddling with the console inside, possibly due to a failure in the car's radio system.

"Liang, is the onboard fuel not adequate?"

Odetto's first reaction was that the car was out of fuel.

One must know that there's no weighing process in the qualifying session, which means there's no minimum fuel filling restriction.

As long as you can complete the flying lap precisely, even if you stop on the track right after crossing the line, it counts as the team's ultimate lightweight capability.

For pole, Chen Xiangbei certainly had his onboard fuel weight carded extremely permissively this time.

However, the amount of fuel is all meticulously calculated by data engineers, theoretically sufficient to drive back to the repair station. Unless the refueling technician team made a mistake, or deliberately reduced the fill to lighten the weight.

"The strategy for the three qualifying sessions was very precise, everything was fueled according to plan, absolutely no issues."

Liang Chi immediately gave a confident response.

One must know that the entire process of the East Sea Circuit qualifying was all within the team's strategy group plan, from start to finish without any variables, and members were confident about Chen Xiangbei's advancement.

If there's anything unexpected, it was underestimating Chen Xiangbei's laptime performance.

No one on the team expected Chen Xiangbei to lead the whole journey!

While Odetto was guessing the reason, track staff reached the location where Chen Xiangbei had stopped.

They assisted Chen Xiangbei in untangling the seatbelt and exiting the cockpit, while providing a walkie-talkie through the paddock public channel to contact the team, informing them of the current situation.

"Odetto, the car engine is overheating and seems like the radio system is also malfunctioning."

Upon hearing the cause of the stoppage, Odetto did not inquire further on the public channel but replied with an extremely simple phrase.

"Received, you come back first."

Although the cause of the car malfunction must ultimately be reported, discussing excessively on the public voice channel would allow opponents to grasp HRT's car performance traits and devise targeted prediction plans.

Never underestimate the technical capability and professionalism of this group of F1 engineers; their means of probing opponent cars are very adept, many can sketch aerodynamic characteristics by just a glimpse.

Or to verify opponent's car cooling ability and airflow orientation, anything like thermal imagers would be secretly employed.

"Understood."

Chen Xiangbei understood Odetto's intention, responded briefly before heading towards the direction of the repair station.

But the conversation on the public channel had not undergone FIA's disclosure process delay and was almost instantly spread across the entire paddock, including the two commentators in the broadcast hall.

"From the conversation just now, it's confirmed that Chen Xiangbei's car engine has a overheating issue, and it's uncertain if this will affect tomorrow's race."

Sha Tong said worriedly, which also basically verified some of the rumors at the beginning of the season, that the HRT Team had imposed power restrictions on the Toyota engine, the TF110 prototype was not as perfect as last year's GP001.

This era's FIA rules, although do not impose restrictions on the quantity of power units activated, do have regulations on activation time, which is no modification of the car post-qualifying.

Undoubtedly, if a major problem arises, Chen Xiangbei must violate the rules.

But Sha Tong's unintentional worry through the commentary channel's FM transmission to live audience ears sparked a heated discussion. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Chinese fans naturally shared the same concerns, while fans from other countries or of other drivers weren't as courteous.

"What engine overheating, plainly, the HRT car's cylinder exploded!"

"No wonder Xiangbei's speed skyrocketed this race, turns out HRT Team exerted the engine power."

"Other teams can at most activate super power; HRT's car probably activated 'Mars Rover' power, directly blowing the engine."

"Playing like this during qualifying, let's see how Xiangbei ensures such engine output power over fifty-six laps in the race!"

"Seems the qualifying result is ultimately ephemeral."

Initially, many inside and outside the paddock couldn't comprehend how Chen Xiangbei achieved such astonishing speed.

Solely relying on home driver doesn't quite explain it.

After all, even HRT Team members were filled with surprise and unexpectedness.

Now it seems they found the cause, HRT Team is indeed quenching thirst with poison. For pursuing qualifying performance, entirely disregarded engine lifespan and stability, desperately squeezed performance to boost speed.

This kind of gameplay, definitely won't complete the race!

Of course, it's merely discussion among audience and fans; members of various team and professional racing personnel won't think the problem so simply.

Squeezing engine performance may allow Chen Xiangbei to run faster, but can't ensure he'll take pole.

Even the fastest car needs a driver with equivalent skill to drive it, else what good is reaching extreme speed?

But regardless of what happens, HRT car malfunction is good news for competitors.

Pole position is certainly Chen Xiangbei's, but if engine failure is irreparable, the front row start position may not be Chen Xiangbei's. Per FIA regulations, switching power units midway results in a ten-place penalty!

This unstable engine performance, without Australia's rain race backing, can Chen Xiangbei still achieve a stunning reversal?