Chapter 1369 - 514: Pirelli: I’m Tired, Let It All End, Hurry Up

Chapter 1369: Chapter 514: Pirelli: I’m Tired, Let It All End, Hurry Up

Alpine’s actions were obviously in violation.

Then the original five-second penalty was increased by ten more seconds.

Meanwhile, when O’Kang left the pit area after changing tires, he was penalized another five seconds for speeding by 1 km/h in the pit area.

Altogether 20 seconds of penalty, almost half a minute.

This five-second penalty is still acceptable for endurance races like Le Mans 24 Hours.

After all, no matter what, there will always be one or two safety cars or other accidents on the track throughout 24 hours, giving hope for a comeback.

But O’Kang’s half-minute penalty must be served in the pit stop area.

Two pit stops, plus a 20-second penalty, altogether O’Kang received nearly a minute and a half penalty in today’s race.

This means that O’Kang was already lapped by all drivers on the track before even completing half the race.

What’s the point anymore?

The F1 season is still long, and instead of wasting engine lifespan and enduring the agony on the track, it’s better to retire directly.

So eventually, O’Kang opted to retire from the race.

Of course, this news was welcomed by commentators and audiences alike, as O’Kang isn’t particularly favored by neutral fans.

His retirement undoubtedly elicited applause from many.

However, if you were to ask who is the happiest after O’Kang retired, without a doubt, it’s Alonso sitting in the Aston Martin.

Even though Alonso’s track engineer couldn’t possibly convey all of the unfortunate events O’Kang encountered today within a short time.

A simple sentence, "O’Kang opted to retire due to accumulating over 20 seconds of penalties," was enough to keep Alonso delighted throughout the race.

This embodied the saying of flipping a tricycle—Old Man revels.

Not to mention, Aston Martin’s performance this season has been unexpectedly strong, catching Alonso off guard.

Who would have thought that a team lingering at the back last season would now be among the top of the leaderboard?

Now, Aston Martin somewhat resembles last season’s Alfa Romeo.

At the season’s start, sacrificing a world champion in favor led to a significant performance leap in the new season’s car.

Almost as though these teams made a deal with the FIA, sacrificing an old driver in exchange for unleashing more performance from the car.

Starting from lap 13, the pit window opened, and drivers began entering the pits for tire changes.

As Qin Miao closed in behind Hamilton at a distance of 1.4 seconds, he switched to cruise mode.

Why isn’t Qin Miao overtaking Hamilton...?

No need, really, since Verstappen is already 4 seconds ahead of Hamilton, with Qin Miao trailing by over 5 seconds.

Qin Miao doesn’t believe that surpassing Hamilton would allow him to catch up with Verstappen ahead.

Might as well stay out on the track longer, conserving tire usage so his hard tires can last longer on the track.

Old Man also chose to pit for a tire change on lap 14.

Qin Miao seamlessly moved into second place.

Though Hamilton’s tires could last a bit longer, the team saw Qin Miao’s telemetry data and noticed him slightly lifting off the throttle at the end of the straight, braking earlier than when chasing Hamilton.

Thus, knowing Qin Miao wasn’t planning to attack Hamilton.

While the team doesn’t explicitly state it, you know it doesn’t make sense for Hamilton to block a double champion up ahead?

Isn’t he aware?

So the team simply called Hamilton into the pits, implicitly telling him to stop blocking Qin Miao.

Once Hamilton pitted, Qin Miao enjoyed over 5 seconds of clear air ahead, allowing him to comfortably run his own pace.

During lap 14, Piastri pitted for a tire change while also replacing the incorrectly set steering wheel.

Even though this scene is seldom seen, it has indeed occurred in F1 history.

In fact, McLaren has shown this scene before.

"During the 2013 Indian Grand Prix, McLaren did the same operation with Hamilton, except Hamilton drove off right away after switching the steering wheel without any impact."

This was Zhou Haoran’s comment from Five-Star Sports.

As McLaren’s rookie driver, Piastri didn’t achieve a good outcome with his steering wheel change this time.

After setting up the wheel, it took forever to start, while McLaren’s logo stayed illuminated for a long time.

Although this provided good advertising, Piastri’s debut got ruined, because the steering wheel still malfunctioned upon startup.

The young lad was simply unlucky.

More stringently speaking, Piastri’s retirement was only regretful because it was his first professional race and he couldn’t finish victoriously.

Given how the McLaren car’s performance at the season’s start wasn’t quite optimal, Piastri wouldn’t have likely scored points in his first race even if he hadn’t retired.

Luck plays a more significant role.

In lap 17, all eyes turned to Qin Miao.

The director also displayed the lap-time gap between first-place Qin Miao and second-place Verstappen.

Currently, Verstappen is shortening the time gap with Qin Miao by 0.6 seconds per lap.