Chapter 390: Chapter 185: Unexpected Event
Qin Miao’s racecar began to visibly slow down, and as Qin Miao’s speed decreased, the cars behind him raced past one by one.
Soon, a yellow flag was raised in the third timing sector where Qin Miao was located.
"Is that a Mercedes? Did Hamilton’s car have a problem right after coming out of the pit?" Fei was a bit surprised to see a Mercedes slowing down on the track.
Bing, with sharp eyes, saw the number 66 on Qin Miao’s car: "It’s not Hamilton! It’s Qin Miao, Qin Miao’s car has a problem!"
"Huh? Qin Miao was doing well this race, he had a chance to win! What’s wrong with the car?"
"Ah, what a pity."
"Sigh~"
The three commentators were quite surprised by the mechanical failure of Qin Miao’s car, but retiring from a race due to mechanical issues is inevitable in motorsports, so all they could do was lament in the studio, then continue with their jobs.
Since Qin Miao couldn’t power the car in the third timing sector, the racecar kept coasting on inertia, so Frankie from his team asked: "Is it possible to coast back to the pit?"
After all, Hamilton had just changed his tires not long ago, and Red Bull’s second driver, Perez, hadn’t pitted yet. If safety cars were deployed because Qin Miao stopped by the track, Hamilton would be in big trouble.
Qin Miao was well aware of this, but F1 cars have high downforce which also means high drag. After feeling the speed of his car and observing the rate of deceleration, he replied: "Impossible, I can’t bring the car back, but I’ll try to stop at the entrance of Matthew Passage."
Even though it was unsettling to see drivers whiz past him, as if something was stuck in his chest, Qin Miao forced himself to calm down in this situation.
Qin Miao had walked through the circuit before the race and knew where the Matthew Passage entrance was in the third timing sector.
Qin Miao coasted into the Matthew Passage using the car’s inertia, and the race officials, seeing his cooperation, did not deploy the safety car and quickly lifted the yellow flag.
The Red Bull team staff and fans, initially excited by the mechanical failure on Qin Miao’s car, felt a bit regretful seeing Qin Miao’s car slide into the Matthew Passage.
Originally, it seemed like Mercedes would lose a driver and trigger a safety car, benefiting Red Bull heavily.
But in the end, only Qin Miao retired.
As Qin Miao headed to the Matthew Passage, he didn’t hit the brakes once, forcibly crossing a gravel area, and just managed to enter the Matthew Passage using all the car’s inertia.
After Qin Miao’s car had issues, the broadcaster switched away from the now monotonous race scene, knowing that racing and overtaking are common on the track, but scenes of a driver like Qin Miao retiring are rare.
The helicopter hovered over Qin Miao’s head, tightly capturing him with its camera.
And as for Qin Miao, despite following the team’s instruction not to deploy the safety car.
All the week’s preparation, countless meetings, endless simulator practice on this track, pre-race tactical predictions—everything planned, every hope, vanished in an instant, leaving Qin Miao feeling like when he discovered the relationship between Fan Yue and Zhu Hong.
Distressed, disappointed, resentful, irritable, angry, powerless.
In an instant, negative emotions flooded Qin Miao’s mind.
With the car shut off, Qin Miao sat inside, motionless for a long time.
Seeing Qin Miao not getting out of the car, Matthew on the roadside thought he had run into trouble, quickly approached, and asked if he needed help.
Qin Miao waved them away, wanting to sit in the car and calm down.
How did the car have a mechanical failure? It shouldn’t happen; he buffed the car before the race.
Thinking this, Qin Miao opened his system to check the descriptions of his skills: [Calming the Machine Soul (Blue)]
[Description: Active skill, significantly reduces the mechanical failure rate of the target for the next two hours after use.]
"Tsk... significantly reduces..." Qin Miao clicked his tongue.
This click was more of a vent, as the System Skills never stated that the car would be problem-free. In F2, other drivers’ cars had issues occasionally, while his car hadn’t had a problem all season, which was largely thanks to this skill.
You can’t demand too much from a blue active skill, right?
With a sigh, Qin Miao could only lament his bad luck.
But Qin Miao didn’t stay in the car for too long, he got out when the tow truck arrived.
After exiting, Fei said: "He’s out, so it probably wasn’t a physical issue. Being his first mechanical failure, he just wanted to stay in the car a bit longer."
Zhou Haoran added: "This seems to be Qin Miao’s first mechanical failure. Qin Miao used to go through everything smoothly, so it’s normal to feel uneasy and uncomfortable confronting this situation for the first time."
After getting out of the car, Qin Miao dutifully reattached his headrest and steering wheel, then watched Matthew lift his car onto the flatbed.