In the team radio, Sainz naturally exclaimed: "NONONO."

This might just be the fate of a Ferrari driver; as long as you’re driving this tractor, someday you’ll find yourself crying inside it.

When Sainz’s car finally stopped, flames erupted from the engine compartment, and the fire spread fiercely, quickly engulfing the entire side pod.

By the time Sainz got out of the car, the flames had already reached his hand.

However, the greatest function of an F1 driver’s racing suit is fireproofing, so even though the flames touched Sainz, he still jumped out of the car as if nothing had happened.

Afterward, Sainz naturally sat dejectedly by the track.

The opportunity for a decent race, to significantly close the points gap with Leclerc, is just gone.

Anyone in his position would be devastated.

When Sainz retired, he drove his car to the pit entry on the track at Matthew’s entrance.

Even though the car was on fire, extinguishing it wasn’t too difficult, so the race officials didn’t take further action, only deploying the virtual safety car.

But the virtual safety car was deployed quite late; it only appeared after Qin Miao, Leclerc, and Verstappen had passed the pit entry.

Qin Miao’s display showed the virtual safety car was deployed, and he immediately asked the team: "Do I need to pit? What’s the situation on the track?"

The team’s strategy group started calculating as soon as the yellow flags appeared on the track. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

However, it would still take some time for Qin Miao and the others to complete another lap and return to the pit entry.

So the team wasn’t particularly anxious, but Frankie quickly and clearly said: "Hold on, there’s still time, the team is currently assessing if you need to pit."

Qin Miao knew he shouldn’t be anxious now, but he couldn’t help glancing at the Ferrari and Red Bull behind him through the rearview mirror, wondering if these two would pit.

Meanwhile, the tire changers for Ferrari and Red Bull had already carried tires and tools outside the team’s pit box, ready to call their drivers in.

After some brainstorming at Mercedes, Frankie finally told Qin Miao: "Stay out, we think your soft tires are still in good condition and can last until the end of the race."

The team understood that Qin Miao’s lead position in this race was primarily due to his differing strategy from Leclerc and Verstappen.

Qin Miao’s main advantage over the other two drivers was tire durability.

At this point, Qin Miao only had hard tires left in his new tire reserve, while the latest medium tires had run 11 laps, and the latest soft tires had run 6 laps.

These two tire options had similar durability to the ones Qin Miao was currently using.

But if he used hard tires, Qin Miao’s car would be slower than Ferrari and Red Bull, exposing weaknesses that could jeopardize his podium finish, let alone contending for the win.

After weighing the options, the team finally decided to keep Qin Miao on track.

He could maintain a 10-second position advantage, combined with the speed of his soft tires, and with only 12 laps left in the race, once the virtual safety car lasts another lap, there would be only 11 laps remaining when the race restarts.

Qin Miao’s tires would certainly withstand the consumption of the final segment.

Therefore, Mercedes issued such a team order.

Qin Miao had no objections; he trusted the team’s strategy group decisions. So far, the team hadn’t caused any trouble with faulty team orders.

Unlike a certain red team’s strategy group.

Qin Miao couldn’t even imagine how badly he would be sabotaged by the strategy group if he joined a certain red team in his first season.