How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 99 - 82: End of the F2 Race

The five red lights lit up one by one amid the "toot toot" sound from the on-site speakers.

The moment the five red lights went out, the F2 British Grand Prix main race began.

The engines of the 20 F2 cars started roaring madly, and in the blink of an eye, the previously neatly lined up F2 cars began jockeying for position or defending, making even Qin Miao with such keen eyesight somewhat dizzy.

However, a pink F2 car quickly captured most of the onlookers’ attention, because after the lights went out, all the cars had started, and the drivers were using all their skills and efforts to complete the start-up process, hoping to gain a few positions early on.

But only this pink car remained motionless among the throng of vehicles.

Naturally, Qin Miao’s attention was also drawn to this pink car.

To the extent that Zhou Guanyu’s sluggish start, merely getting overtaken by his teammate at turn T1 was completely overlooked by him.

But that was that, because after the front two cars passed the first corner, the race officials showed the yellow flag.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao from the P grandstand clearly saw that the right front brake disc location of what should be a Racing Point junior F2 team’s car was on fire.

Several Matthews rushed onto the track under the yellow flag and, after a brief discussion, pushed the car back.

Another Matthew rushed over with a fire extinguisher to put out the fire.

Conveniently, right behind this car’s starting grid was an exit where the Silverstone Circuit paddock and track met, where teams would push their cars out from this gap to park them on the starting grid during race preparations.

So the Matthews smoothly pushed the F2 car back to the paddock through this exit.

In about a minute, the yellow flag turned to green, and the race continued.

By the time Qin Miao recovered from all of this and looked at the live screen broadcasting the race, he was shocked to discover that Zhou Guanyu, who started from pole position, had already fallen to second place.

And it was precisely his teammate who had snatched the first place from Zhou Guanyu.

However, Qin Miao didn’t watch for long before the officials sent out the yellow flag again.

When the broadcast camera switched over, Qin Miao noticed a blue F2 car parked on a side road of the track, seemingly having encountered some issue, and was forced to retire from the race.

The camera focused for about five or six seconds, then the live director switched the view back to the pink F2 car that had failed to start initially.

Because this car, after a simple check, successfully restarted, and was now starting from the pit lane onto the track.

However, as expected, today’s race for this person might as well be over, and the rest of it just practice, with no thought for position or points.

In just three laps, F2 gave Qin Miao, who was watching it for the first time, quite a lot of action.

The density of these events left Qin Miao dazzled, inwardly exclaiming "Goodness gracious."

And in his heart, Qin Miao also lamented Zhou Guanyu’s misfortune.

Because today’s race stage weather in Britain wasn’t particularly good. Although it wasn’t raining heavily, there were scattered showers on parts of the track.

This also caused the officials not to allow drivers to open DRS in the first five laps.

In the earlier laps, Zhou Guanyu could still keep within a second behind his teammate.

But without the aid of DRS, coupled with his teammate being faster than Zhou Guanyu, the gap between the two cars gradually widened.

Meanwhile, Latifi was also quickly closing in on Zhou Guanyu.

The race soon reached the seventh lap, the second lap after the pit window opened, and Zhou Guanyu and Latifi behind him simultaneously entered the pits for tire changes.

From the P grandstand above, Qin Miao watched as Zhou Guanyu’s team’s engineers completed the tire change, put the car down, but only after a while did the car start up and exit the pit lane.

Meanwhile, the tire change for Latifi, originally positioned behind him, was smooth and seamless, and he accelerated away without any delay after the car landed.

So Qin Miao watched as Latifi completed the overtaking of Zhou Guanyu in the pit lane.

This scene inexplicably caused Qin Miao’s blood pressure to spike.

Thinking about it, if this incident happened to Qin Miao himself, he would probably start cursing the responsible party’s parents on the spot.

Losing a position like this, it’s just too stifling.

Of course, the premise is that such a mistake wasn’t caused by Qin Miao’s own fault.

And while just a tire change was happening, another issue arose; a car stalled in the pit lane and retired.

This also made it convenient for the team, not having to wait for the Matthews to bring the car back, just towing it straight back to the garage for inspection, readying for the next sprint race, saving the drivers from at least twenty laps of trouble compared to other teams.

This car retired within the pit lane passage, so no yellow flag was triggered on the track.

Additionally, the rain on the track had stopped, and after a few laps, the track dried, prompting the officials to finally open DRS.

Although Zhou Guanyu was in seventh place at the moment, most positioned ahead of him hadn’t pitted yet. Once they pitted, Zhou Guanyu would still be in the third position.

Moreover, there was more good news for Zhou Guanyu: after Latifi overtook him, he had already started attacking Zhou Guanyu’s teammate in front.

If the two ahead continued to maintain this back-and-forth attacking and defending stance, the upcoming race scenario would undoubtedly be favorable for Zhou Guanyu.

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