Chapter 77 - 9: Two Pities

Chapter 77: Chapter 9: Two Pities

In the afternoon, the final countdown to the main race had begun.

The drivers were all in place, each in their own pit garage and unable to see what the others were doing. However, people kept popping out into the pit lane for a look. They were most likely members of other teams trying to gather some intel.

Unfortunately, everyone’s tires were covered with tire warmers, so nothing could be gleaned.

After the signal to release the cars came over the broadcast, Wu Shi was the first to drive out, followed by Antonio, Latifi, Verstappen, Calderon, and the rest.

After a formation lap, all the cars returned to the start-finish straight.

This race series used a standing start. The race would begin when all the indicator lights lit up and then went out.

Sitting in his seat, Wu Shi felt his heart begin to race.

No matter how many years he’d been driving, he always got nervous at the start. It was a physiological response he couldn’t overcome.

His eyes were glued to the starting lights. The moment they all lit up, he was ready to release the clutch. This time, however, the lights stayed on for a full two seconds.

It threw off all the eager drivers. When you’re that focused, two seconds feels like two minutes.

When the lights went out, even Wu Shi hesitated for a split second.

VROOOOM!

But once he reacted, he dropped the clutch. The revs matched perfectly. The tires barely spun, the combination of torque and grip achieving a perfect synergy.

The car surged forward.

Behind him, the delayed start had caused many drivers to fumble their launch. If not for their considerable experience, some might have stalled right on the grid.

The start alone was enough to separate the field into several tiers.

The top tier consisted of the first four cars. Because Wu Shi’s reaction had been a little slow, Antonio was already challenging him. Furthermore, Antonio was likely on the newest set of tires, which offered superior performance off the line.

But Wu Shi’s launch was so flawless that he almost completely compensated for his slight hesitation and the tire disadvantage on the start-finish straight.

"His upshifts are a thing of beauty. Look at this data curve—he’s always changing gears at the optimal RPM to deliver maximum torque. The drivers behind him could study this launch for years."

Once the cars were on the grid, Jos had made his way to Wu Shi’s pit garage; he knew the data from this car was always the most interesting.

But no one was paying him any mind. Wu Shi and Antonio were nearly neck and neck as they approached the first corner.

Turn 1 was a left-hander. Antonio was on the left and Wu Shi on the right, meaning Antonio naturally had the inside line. However, he was also on the dirty side of the track, where grip would be slightly worse.

Wu Shi didn’t try to squeeze his opponent on the inside. Instead, he pulled as far to the right as possible, preparing for a "slow in, fast out" approach to defend his position.

Antonio, however, adopted a more aggressive strategy. He abandoned the inside line and followed Wu Shi to the right, as if intending to squeeze him off the track.

The strategy was highly effective. After all, Antonio had the inside advantage, which already blocked Wu Shi’s line into the corner. By following him, he further pinned Wu Shi to the outside.

Of course, Wu Shi knew his move could be exploited; in fact, he was counting on it.

As they reached the braking point, Antonio’s nerve broke first and he hit the brakes. He then saw Wu Shi shoot forward another foot before braking himself.

’How can he brake that late! Is he going to fly off the track?!’ Antonio roared inwardly.

His question was quickly answered when a wisp of white smoke flashed in his peripheral vision.

’A lock-up, just as I thought!’

His doubt turned to excitement. He was about to take first place!

But his excitement quickly turned back to confusion. Wu Shi hadn’t slowed down dramatically; instead, he maintained incredible corner-entry speed and was now aggressively squeezing him.

He glanced to the side and saw the enormous rear wheel of Wu Shi’s car, practically scraping against his own sidepod. From a wider perspective, the two cars looked almost interlocked.

The sudden sight made him instinctively steer further toward the inside, which meant he had to slow down.

What was even more shocking was that Wu Shi kept pressing in, as if the extra space Antonio had just given him didn’t even exist.

Antonio broke out in a cold sweat. He felt a crash was imminent, and his instinct to swerve away made him pull even further to the inside, scrubbing off more speed.

Finally, his car and Wu Shi’s separated, and a gap opened between them.

By then, however, Wu Shi had maintained a higher speed and was completely ahead of him.

On corner exit, Wu Shi’s acceleration was smoother, allowing him to pull even further ahead.

A single corner had put their duel of skill and courage on full display.

"Nice!"

"Yes!"

The crew members pumped their fists. Even though they were just a temporary team, their competitive spirit was strong.

The engineer immediately came on the team radio. "Good job. You’ve opened up a 0.1-second gap. Even though he’s on new tires, he’s slower than you in the corners."

"Copy."

Wu Shi glanced at his rearview mirror, seeing Antonio behind him.

The upcoming sequence of corners was mostly left-handers, meaning Antonio could easily launch another attack. Wu Shi had to drift toward the center of the track to defend.

As Antonio closed in, however, he rapidly moved from the far inside to the far outside, preparing to make a move around the outside.

Wu Shi was confused. The next turn wasn’t in the opposite direction, so there was no way to use the outside line to cut back to the inside for an overtake. Moving to the outside now meant missing the optimal racing line.

Unable to understand his opponent’s tactic, he simply focused on driving his own race.

As he approached the corner, he braked early. Antonio’s car seemed to accelerate as it flew past him.

’Copying me?’

Wu Shi smiled. ’Every corner is different; the effectiveness of late braking varies wildly. More importantly, can you *really* control the brakes like that? Can you make them lock for a split second, release, then lock again, pulsing them to extract maximum friction from the tires? Can you manually replicate an ABS system?’

The answer was obviously no. Even though Antonio was trying to pump the brakes, that kind of braking would do little more than create a few flat spots on his tires without providing any real stopping power.

In the ensuing exchange, Wu Shi retook the lead. After smoothly navigating the series of corners, he was already a car length ahead and quickly moved from the inside to cover the outside line.

SWOOSH!

As he exited the sequence of corners, Wu Shi had decisively completed the overtake and secured first place.

With no one to challenge him in the following corners, he quickly began to open up a gap.

"Save your tires!" the engineer had to remind him over the radio.

"Copy."

Wu Shi backed off a little. He knew the engineer was right; he could maintain a faster pace, but his tires would definitely give out before the end of the race.

As the race settled into a rhythm, Antonio stopped attacking as well. With Latifi looming in his mirrors, neither driver dared to burn up their tires fighting, which could compromise their ability to finish the race.

WHOOSH!

Lap after lap, some twenty minutes went by.

"Five minutes left in the race," the engineer said over the radio.

Five minutes. That was less than three laps. According to the thirty-minute-plus-one-lap rule, this meant they were effectively on the final three laps of the race.

Wu Shi glanced at his rearview mirror. Hampered by his tires, he was leading by less than a second—a gap he had painstakingly clawed out, tenth by tenth, over the past twelve laps.

A one-second gap might seem small, but from a bird’s-eye view, you’d see Wu Shi leading, with several car lengths separating him from Antonio.

Latifi was only half a car length behind Antonio, and just behind him, Verstappen was practically glued to Latifi’s rear wing.

He didn’t know if Antonio would try to make a move on him, but he was certain that Verstappen in fourth would attack Latifi.

He realized the most intense battle of the race was about to begin. ’Too bad it probably won’t involve me,’ he thought. ’And an even bigger shame I can’t watch it.’