ctnovel Chapter 64 But then again...
Chapter 64 But then again...
Leclerc entered the station. He had a significant advantage and could have easily stayed in the pit lane to observe before deciding whether to exit and take a second flight. And that's exactly what he did.
Sainz has entered the station and doesn't plan to leave for the time being.
Perez entered the station and also remained in the P room.
Verstappen pitted, changed to new tires, and immediately left the pit.
Tang Che stayed on the track to do a cool-down lap, and immediately started rushing for the second flight lap after finishing the cool-down lap.
The first time trial ended in green! The second time trial... got blocked! Tang Che's flight loop was completely ruined!
Tangche decided to pit for a tire change, preparing to make his final lap with the new tires.
Shortly after Tanger entered the station, Cupping King and Emperor completed their second flight laps one after another, with lap times still outside the 1:12 range. Not only did they pose no threat to Tanger, but they were also not as fast as Touma and Norris.
Today, Mercedes probably wouldn't even deserve to sit at the same table as McLaren and Alpine.
Verstappen's second flying lap... he slid at Turn 1! From practice to qualifying, Verstappen has consistently struggled with braking at Turn 1. Three yellow laps, this flying lap looks like it wasn't even done.
With two and a half minutes left in Q3, Verstappen has one last chance to perform a flying lap.
While Verstappen was doing his cool-down lap, Leclerc, Sainz, and Townter all came out of the pits and were doing their race laps. They all had only one last chance to do a flying lap.
One lap to set the pole position!
Tangche started setting up the flight path first... First timeout green! Second timeout green! Third timeout... Red flag! Perez and Sainz collided!
Director Pei! Director Pei!
That ruined what could have been a perfectly good lap for Tangche!
This ruined Leclerc's potential lap time! Leclerc's first timeout is purple again, 0.165 seconds faster! If he had finished the lap, his time could have easily broken 1:11!
This has dashed Verstappen's hopes of winning pole position!
The final rankings for Q3 are now set!
p1 Leclerc, p2 Tontatta, p3 Sainz, p4 Perez, p5 Verstappen, p6 Norris, p7 Gasly, p8 Russell, p9 Alonso, p10 Hamilton.
This is most likely the finisher's ranking for tomorrow's main race.
Ferrari's P-side is celebrating, Alfa Romeo's P-side is celebrating.
The atmosphere in the Red Bull P2 room was heavy, and the Mercedes P2 room was shrouded in gloom, but Horner, Marco, and even Toilet Wolf were not too down. The three of them looked at the name of P2 hanging on the screen at the same time, their eyes shining with the same light.
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After a busy day, Chef Tang returned to his apartment in Monaco.
Tang Jingqing and Zhou Guanyu returned to Tang's apartment together.
Zhou Guanyu came to review the qualifying matches with Tang Che.
Zhou Guanyu has a great quality: he is very willing to learn from others about his shortcomings.
People both inside and outside the paddock always criticize Zhou Guanyu's ranking ability. Zhou Guanyu also knows that his maximum single-lap ability is not outstanding. Within the team, he is very willing to learn from Bottas, and outside the team, he is very willing to learn from Tang Che.
Because they were on the same team, Zhou Guanyu had a lot of time to learn from Bottas, but the gains were limited. Because they were on different teams, Zhou Guanyu had very little time to learn from Tang Che, but the gains were substantial.
He has been making progress, but his shortcomings cannot be made up for overnight. He still needs to accumulate experience slowly and wait for a qualitative change.
At other races, each team stays in a different hotel, so it's not convenient for Zhou Guanyu to visit Tang Che's hotel after the race or invite Tang Che to his own hotel. To get advice from him, he can only call or text, which is somewhat ineffective.
At Monaco Station, Tang Che lived in his own apartment, and Zhou Guanyu could go to Tang Che's apartment without any hesitation to ask Tang Che for help with the review.
How could Tang Che not respond?
The two brothers entered debriefing mode, and Tang Jingqing also entered work mode.
Social media! Launch!
The 15-time champion posted a photo of himself with Leclerc after qualifying? Like it on Toncher's social media account!
Leclerc posted a photo of himself celebrating pole position? Like it on Tontatta's social media account!
Norris posted a selfie celebrating the P6? Liked it using Tontatta's social media account!
Perez issued an apology for the Q3 qualifying incident? (Using Tontatta's social media account to like this post...) This can't be liked! (Skip this!)
……
A picture was sent to Tang Jingqing's work account.
A screenshot of an announcement:
"Effective immediately, XX Group (GG Space for Rent) has reached a long-term motorsport sponsorship agreement with current Formula One World Championship professional driver, Townter. XX Group will provide full support for Townter's journey in the global F1 series, offering exclusive motorsport support for his professional racing career..."
The picture was obviously sent to Tang Jingqing by staff from XX Group.
Tang Jingqing immediately used Tang Che's social media account to forward the bilingual (Chinese and English) announcement released by the xx Group's official account.
Soon after, news of Townche securing a new sponsor spread throughout the F1 media:
"Breaking News! XX Group officially announces a sponsorship partnership with F1 driver Frank Townche! The agreement runs until 2025..."
"Tanter's acquisition of a large sponsorship from a Chinese company may intensify the bidding war among racing teams for him..."
……
Very quickly! Very quickly! Megis called Tang Che's cell phone again!
Meeks: "Tom, do you have time to talk now?"
"I'm a bit busy," Tang Che said. "What would you like to talk about, Mr. Mekes? If it's related to a transfer, I can ask my aunt to come and discuss it with you; if it's something else, we can talk later."
"It's related to a transfer," Megis said. "We can give you a seat at Ferrari directly."
Tang Che called for his parents: "Auntie!!!!"
Tang Jingqing went to Tang Che's room to take over Tang Che's phone and then went to the living room to have a conversation with Meijis.
Zhou Guanyu: "Are all four major racing teams vying for you?"
People often have the mentality of both fearing that their brothers are suffering and fearing that their brothers are driving Land Rovers. Zhou Guanyu does not have this mentality because ever since Zhou Guanyu met Tang Che, Tang Che has always been driving a Land Rover, and Zhou Guanyu has long been used to it.
Tang Che nodded.
Zhou Guanyu laughed and said, "Don't forget to treat me to dinner after you get that big contract."
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It rained during the Monaco match!
The rain was light at first and didn't seem to last long, so the convoys prepared to depart as usual.
Once all the race cars had stopped in their starting grids, the rain started to pour.
This is incredible! This is Bill Russell, the racing emperor, wielding absolute power and influence!
In a pre-race interview, the Emperor said he hoped it would rain during the race. He believed rain would bring a lot of uncertainty and could give the Emperor, who started later in the grid, a significant advantage.
Alfa Romeo Team: No matter what, we start from the front row, and our Tom is a top wet racer in the paddock, so the advantage is on our side!
Race Control Center: "The warm-up lap will begin at 15:09 local time."
The main event was delayed by nine minutes due to rain.
Race control center: "The warm-up lap will be conducted under the guidance of the safety car."
What kind of tire is being warmed?
There are all sorts of tires, including neutral tires and semi-wet tires. Sometimes, if you suddenly feel that a dry tire is not working properly, you can push a semi-wet tire onto the starting straight to replace the dry tire.
The reason why different teams choose different tires is because each team has different weather forecasts.
Some teams predicted that the rain would stop quickly after the start of the race, while others predicted that the rain would continue for a relatively long time at a low intensity...
But fate doesn't give any team's weather forecast any special treatment.
The rain suddenly started to intensify.
Race Control Center: "The warm-up lap will begin at 15:16 local time, led by the safety car."
The trip was postponed again due to heavy rain.
At this point, all the teams and the FIA updated their weather forecasts.
"The rain will continue at its current intensity for 10 minutes after the start of the match," Mattia reported in TR.
FIA: "The warm-up lap is scheduled for 15:16 local time, under the guidance of the safety car, and all riders will use full wet tires."
Well, now all the teams will have to push their full wet tires to the starting straight to change them.
The most tiring episode for the crew.
At 15:16, the tire warm-up round began, led by the safety car.
Not long after the tire warm-up began, the rain intensified.
"The track was wetter than I expected," Ricciardo said on TR.
Leclerc said on TR, "This rain is insane."
Tanger and Verstappen remained silent, focusing solely on warming up the tires and testing the track's grip.
It looks like today's battle against the rain is going to be crazy!
The warm-up lap is about to end, the race is about to begin... Red Flag!
Formula One World Championship - No Rain!
However, on the other hand, with such heavy rain, driving on the track is like sailing a boat, posing a very high safety risk. The temporary suspension of the race is also for the safety of the drivers.
The match will be cancelled once the rain subsides or even stops.
All the teams simply pushed their cars back to the pit lane, and all the drivers got out of their cars to rest.
Some drivers took advantage of this time to cram – Gasly pulled Tontatta aside to look at a Monaco rain race tutorial and discussed the essentials of rain racing with Tontatta on the spot.
Some drivers took advantage of this time to create some good content—Bottas photoshopped his artistic photos together with the Monaco circuit in the rain and released them, instantly becoming a top trending topic that major F1 media outlets were vying to share.
You know what, you really have to admit, this artistic photo actually makes her skin look quite fair. (crossed out)
Fate has once again proven the weather forecast teams of each convoy wrong; ten minutes have passed, and the rain shows no sign of letting up.
The rain lasted for a full 45 minutes before it stopped!
At 16:05, the race started with the safety car leading the way, and the number of laps was reduced from 78 to 77. All drivers used full wet tires.
Rahman was probably spurred on by the dramatic performance of Peyto in Q3, and he started giving guidance on the first lap, lightly bumping the guardrail at Turn 6.
There was no damage to the vehicle, but it got stuck on this extremely difficult corner, directly affecting Stroll's cornering behind it.
The young master hugged the wall while navigating turn 6, only to suffer a tire blowout.
On lap 3, the safety car leaves the track and begins lapping!
The track is already extremely difficult to overtake, and now it's wet and you can't use DRES. Unless the car in front makes a mistake or the wheelset of the car in front is several levels worse than the car behind, it's almost impossible to overtake.
And there's no guarantee of an offensive opportunity.
Although it was Monaco and the track was wet, the F1-75's long-distance lap times were still faster than the AT03, just not as dramatically fast as on dry tracks at other races.
As the safety car left the field, Leclerc quickly created a safe distance, and thereafter, Tangteau not only couldn't catch up, but was also pulled further and further away by Leclerc.
Sainz behind Tangcher could catch up with him, but it was of little use; Tangcher defended against Sainz as easily as eating and drinking.
Sainz simply stopped attacking. Since Ferrari's two cars were leading Red Bull, even if Sainz kept lapping behind Toncher, it wouldn't have much impact on Ferrari's championship aspirations.
Although Sainz's lap times will be slowed down by Tontard and he will eventually be caught up by the Red Bull duo, the narrow track does not support the Red Bull duo working together. Red Bull can only send one car out to attack Sainz. Whether it is Perez or Verstappen, it is not much easier for Sainz to overtake Tontard than for Sainz to overtake him.
Even if we assume the Red Bull player surpasses Sainz, can he get past Taunter? No way! He can't shake Leclerc's championship title.
First, Leclerc is vying for the WDC title, and second, Monaco is Leclerc's home ground, so Ferrari has to fully support Leclerc's title aspirations.
Ferrari would be perfectly willing to accept a win for Leclerc at home, even if Sainz falls off the podium.
Red Bull cannot accept this.
If Red Bull wants to win this race, they must use every means to get past Sainz and Townche as soon as possible.
On lap 7, the two Red Bull cars closed in on Sainz's attack.
Red Bull's strategy team swapped Verstappen and Perez, sending Verstappen to attack Sainz. The plan was to wait until Verstappen overtook Sainz before bringing Perez in to tie him down, allowing Verstappen to attack Tanger without any worries.
However, even Verstappen struggled to overcome the intensified overtaking hell, failing to overtake Sainz until lap 16.
At this point, Leclerc's lead over Verstappen had widened to 13 seconds!
Red Bull can no longer let Verstappen and Sainz remain locked in a stalemate; Red Bull must demand change!
In a situation like this, what could be more suitable than the undercut tactic?
On lap 16, Red Bull called Verstappen to pit for tires on the next lap.
Undercut! Red Bull really did activate undercut!
Ferrari needs to adapt to the situation!
The CPU of the Science started running!
The CPU of the strategy group started running at full speed!
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Bonus Chapter: F1 Anecdotes (16)
At 16:49, according to Sky Sports, Ferrari sent Leclerc to seduce Towntcher in an attempt to sign him!
This incident instantly became a trending topic on F1 social media, and the members of the Iron Buddha Temple were utterly shocked and incredulous, exclaiming, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could our monastery do such a despicable thing!"
Faced with the outraged crowd at the Ferrari World, Ferrari team principal Binotto stepped forward to take responsibility, claiming that he had forced Leclerc to seduce Tontatta, and that the Ferrari fans should criticize him if they wanted.
However, according to Ferrari employees, this is not the case.
The employee revealed, "Actually, Leclerc actively seduced Tontcher because he was very dissatisfied with Sainz's repeated mistakes and withdrawals from the game, and wanted to find a stronger and more stable teammate. Moreover, Leclerc had always had a crush on Tontcher, and this was a good opportunity for him to express his feelings."
The Iron Buddha Temple members were shocked and couldn't believe it: "I was thinking about Sainz, the number 2 driver for VfB. He's always been loyal and righteous! Locke, why would you betray him?"
Neither Leclerc nor Tanger have responded to this matter.
The situation is still developing, and Sky Sports will continue to provide you with updates.
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Dear friends! If any of you are taking the college entrance exam tomorrow, Tang Che is here to wish you all the best!