Chapter 331: Chapter 166: Bahrain Concludes
"You did pretty well too, Lewis." Qin Miao responded with a smile.
After a brief celebration with Qin Miao, Hamilton turned and rushed towards his team members.
A winter’s worth of effort, all the problems, conflicts, complaints, in this instant, vanished into thin air, leaving only celebration and joy after victory.
After Hamilton left, Qin Miao turned around and reinserted his steering wheel back into the car, and the director wisely switched the camera from celebrating Hamilton to Qin Miao.
Mercedes achieved a good result in this race. Although Qin Miao’s contribution cannot be said to be indispensable, he played an extremely important role.
It’s perfectly reasonable to give him some camera time at this moment.
After placing his steering wheel properly, Qin Miao jogged over to where the team staff were celebrating, he started with a posture akin to a high jumper, then accelerated with two steps and threw his whole body into the air, crashing towards his team members and track engineers.
And they didn’t dodge, they caught Qin Miao with smiles, celebrating and patting every part of his body they could reach, wanting to express their excitement to Qin Miao.
After a brief celebration, Qin Miao was put down, and Hamilton also came over to hug and high-five Qin Miao’s team members.
Though not from the same team, after all, everyone is working for the same racing team, and Qin Miao then naturally went over to Hamilton’s team members, and was pulled by Hamilton’s physical trainer Angela for a photo.
After the celebration, Qin Miao and Hamilton went for weighing. As they approached the FIA officer responsible for recording drivers’ weight, Verstappen happened to be stepping off the scale.
Hamilton stopped him, and the two shook hands and bumped chests lightly, exchanging compliments.
Then it was Qin Miao’s turn.
"Great defense. Seeing your tail lights after my second pit stop gave me a headache." Though somewhat regretful for not achieving his desired result in this race, upon seeing Qin Miao, Verstappen still joked.
"Thanks, your attacks also put a lot of pressure on me."
After brief greetings and chit-chat, Qin Miao went for weighing, while the Old Man turned and reinstalled his steering wheel onto his race car, since the car would be taken for inspection soon; if the steering wheel isn’t properly secured, it might fall off during transportation.
After weighing, Qin Miao went to remove his gear and prepare for the interview.
But while on the way, Qin Miao was suddenly stopped by Leclerc.
Leclerc approached with a smile and gave Qin Miao a hug, "Awesome!"
A phrase of half-baked Chinese taught by Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu was used by Leclerc at this moment, which left Qin Miao amused and shaking his head helplessly, but he skipped the pleasantries with Leclerc: "Of course, who else do you think I am?"
Seeing Qin Miao’s cocky demeanor, Leclerc could only shake his head with a smile. There’s no denying that Qin Miao’s performance was indeed outstanding in today’s race.
If he wants to brag, let him brag.
The two friends joked a bit more before finally parting ways.
After the race, as drivers, they still have a lot to do, so exchanging a few congratulatory words briefly is appropriate, but talking too much would be untimely.
Qin Miao turned towards his preparation area, removed his helmet, took a sip of water to replenish some fluids, and used a fresh towel to wipe off sweat.
After getting sufficiently ready, Qin Miao put on a red cap with the Mercedes logo.
Then he headed to the interview area to accept the interview.
"Qin Miao, your defense against Verstappen today was really impressive. To perform like this in your first race is truly amazing. We noticed that besides helping your teammate defend against Verstappen for eight laps, you also ran 38 laps on a set of hard tires. This is truly an incredible number, and we’re curious how you managed it?"
With hands on his hips, Qin Miao thought for a moment before answering: "This is mainly thanks to the efforts of the team technicians. During the practice sessions, they found the setup most suitable for me, making the car very comfortable to drive, and better enabling me to utilize my strengths, which is tire management, ultimately achieving such good results."
"Alright, Qin, in an interview with Verstappen just now, he also mentioned that your defense was remarkable, saying it was powerful, strategic, and always blocked him in key positions making it difficult for him. He gave very high praise for your defense, but was defending Verstappen a challenging task for you?"
Without hesitation, Qin Miao replied: "Of course, Verstappen is a very strong opponent. Whenever defending against him, I always feel a lot of pressure. His attacks are sharp, often catching you off guard, with precise and aggressive lines. I had to exert more effort to fend off his attacks, and I failed to block him several times.
But fortunately, in the end, I completed the task assigned by the team, and this result satisfies both the team and me."
"Alright, thank you for joining the interview, and congratulations on securing third place in today’s race. Enjoy it."