Qin Miao temporarily held on to his leading position, but by lap 19 Verstappen was already effectively first, and Qin Miao would fall behind him once he pitted.

The set of soft tires used by Qin Miao lasted 22 laps before pitting for a tire change, which was two laps more than the team had estimated.

The team’s strategy for Qin Miao’s tires was straightforward: if Qin Miao’s speed consistently exceeded the team’s expected pace, then there was no need to consider a pit stop; Qin Miao would stay on track until his speed dropped.

The later the pit stop, the longer the durability and speed of Qin Miao’s medium tires would be, ensuring no losses.

When Qin Miao pitted in lap 22, Mercedes, who hadn’t made any tire change mistakes for nearly half a season, surprisingly had a mishap.

During the initial attempt to lock the front right and front left tires, both were not properly secured, completing the tire change only after a second attempt.

When Qin Miao was released, the tire change took a lengthy 4.9 seconds.

This tire change speed was unacceptable for Mercedes, but Qin Miao, though somewhat annoyed, understood the situation regarding this rare occurrence.

Nevertheless, a tire change speed considered average for Mercedes would be fast for this certain green team.

On the track, the most direct consequence of a five-second tire change was Qin Miao dropping to fourth, behind Sainz.

If the pit stop had been within the normal three seconds, Qin Miao would have been ahead of Sainz by 1.9 seconds.

Though Qin Miao had prolonged his time on track for the team, it was clear that it wasn’t enough.

Back on the track, Qin Miao stabilized his mindset and began searching for opportunities to overtake Sainz.

But Qin Miao didn’t have to wait long; by lap 26, both Sainz and Leclerc pitted.

Ferrari’s two drivers pitted together, opening their window for a second pit stop.

Once they came out of the pit lane, they wouldn’t return for another pit stop in this race.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao led Ferrari by 17.5 seconds solely through his pit strategy.

Next, the top three drivers switched to cruise mode.

Qin Miao didn’t expect to catch up to Verstappen.

Verstappen was consistently pulling away from Qin Miao by over a second per lap, and Qin Miao’s pit-earned 17.5-second gap seemed insufficient against such an overwhelming performance disparity.

However, Qin Miao could still try to attack Perez ahead of him.

Perez wasn’t slow in this race, but compared to his teammate, Perez was clearly not as extraordinarily fast.

In this race, Perez was only 0.4 seconds faster than Qin Miao per lap.

Although Qin Miao couldn’t catch up, if Perez made a second stop, Qin Miao had a chance to position himself in front and use his defensive skills to snatch second from Perez.

As for Perez learning from Qin Miao’s strategy and not pitting, relying on the advantage accumulated early in the race and holding out on track?

Given Perez’s status as a tire-saving master, it wouldn’t be implausible, and Qin Miao was quite worried about such a scenario.

But that wouldn’t happen in this race.

Perez had already pitted once for a tire change, and the tires he was using now were the same medium compound as in his first pit stop.

So regardless, Perez would need to pit once more in this race.

However, sometimes things can’t be changed by sheer human will.

Perez indeed pitted in lap 29 and rejoined the track behind Qin Miao.

Yet, Qin Miao couldn’t defend against him.

The speed gap between Mercedes and Red Bull cars was simply too large.

Perez stayed behind Qin Miao for two laps, using slipstreams to recharge his car’s ERS battery, and then overtook Qin Miao directly in the DRS zone between T4 and T5 using the car’s speed.

Despite Qin Miao’s skills, he couldn’t utilize them, and could only helplessly watch Perez pass him with sheer speed on the straight.

"Indeed, there’s nothing that can be done." Facing this scenario, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports were somewhat helpless: "Today, Qin Miao couldn’t have done better in this race."

"Qin Miao indeed did his best in this race, continuously breaking his personal fastest lap times," Zhou Haoran nodded in agreement.

Bing was puzzled: "How did Verstappen and Red Bull become so fast after the summer break, 1.8 seconds, this indeed seems exaggerated."

...

On the track, in the latter stages of the race, Qin Miao essentially could only remain in his current position without moving.

Unable to catch Verstappen and Perez ahead, nor could Sainz behind catch him.

Barring any unexpected occurrences, this race might just end like this.

However, as everyone shared Qin Miao’s thoughts, thinking the latter part of the race would end quietly, Ferrari didn’t want Spa, this classic circuit, to end so uneventfully.

Ferrari’s strategy group requested Leclerc to pit in lap 42 to switch to soft tires for a fast lap, hoping to earn an extra point for Ferrari.