novelhk Chapter 32 pole position? !
Chapter 32 pole position? !
"Several cars are spinning at Turn 15. The grip there is obviously very poor. Be careful when you corner." Mattia, seeing Leclerc spin after taking too much of the kerb at Turn 15, reminded Tanger, "Don't take too much of the kerb at Turn 15..."
Too late to warn! The front wheel of the AT03 has already run onto the kerb of Turn 15... Slip!
Spinning is something every rider will encounter, and it's very likely to happen in the rain.
How drivers handle such out-of-control situations often determines their performance, like the famous paddock director Latifi... who has already gone off the track.
Tang Che... subconsciously turned the steering wheel and stepped on the gas, instantly straightening the car.
Mattia's eyes widened immediately: What the hell do you mean by "fuck your car feel"? (Tactical lean back)
Tang Che: "copy".
Mattia: Master Tang, this bend is really slippery!
Master Tang slipped but was easily saved: copy.
It's like when the waiter reminded Wu Song that he couldn't cross the hill after three bowls of wine, Wu Song drank eighteen bowls in a row, crossed the hill, and killed the tiger. Then he casually told the waiter, "I know."
Mattia felt the same respect as the waiter.
It's not surprising to slip a little on the first lap when you don't know the road conditions; once you get a general understanding of the road conditions after the first lap, Tang Che no longer makes mistakes.
After 7 laps, the rain stopped and the road surface had dried a bit, so I could try pushing.
Tang Che did not push; instead, he directly entered the station to shunt the train.
Today's setup is a bit tricky – practice was in the rain, and qualifying could be either in the rain or on dry ground. Drivers and teams have to be prepared to switch to a dry setup before qualifying.
In situations like this, a simulator is especially needed, but AlphaTori's simulator...
Tang Che: It doesn't matter, I'll take action.
"The front suspension should be stiffer, and the rear suspension should be softer."
"The tail fin's angle of attack has been increased by 2°."
"Raise the ground clearance by 1mm."
……
After Tang Che adjusted his car, the track conditions improved considerably, and almost all the drivers switched to semi-wet tires to set lap times.
Tangche also switched to semi-wet tires and returned to the track.
He still doesn't push for faster lap times much; Tontatta never pushes for the fastest laps in practice. Generally, F1 drivers don't push for the fastest laps in practice.
Practice sessions, especially the first rainy practice session of the season, are often challenging because drivers are less familiar with the track and the car. Pushing for faster lap times can easily lead to crashes. If a car is severely damaged, it could result in missing qualifying or even being unable to participate in the race.
In addition, there is a fixed quota for dry tires each weekend. Pushing too hard in practice will waste too many new soft tires, resulting in insufficient tire options for the race.
The core objectives of practice matches are data collection, calibration and verification, rhythm simulation and risk avoidance; setting the fastest lap time is just a secondary task.
Revealing your true lap time too early can allow competitors to adjust their setups and strategies accordingly, so many teams deliberately slow down and hide their true performance level during practice sessions.
Only in a very few specific scenarios will drivers achieve speeds close to their qualifying limits.
After the first practice session, Tang Che's lap time ranked seventh overall.
The top four will definitely be Ferrari, Red Bull, and their four Mars rovers. Guess who will be fifth and sixth?
Two Haas!
After Mercedes finished this practice session, Hamilton kept saying in the chat that his tires weren't getting warm enough.
W13's dolphin jumps were exceptionally severe; Russell even damaged the floorboard during practice.
Although we always say that practice races are not very informative, Mercedes' poor performance is probably genuine.
Who will use ethane and who will use helium-magnesium ethane? Let's see who comes out on top in the qualifying rounds!
There was a two-and-a-half-hour interval between practice and qualifying. During those two and a half hours, it stopped raining and the track was slowly drying.
The qualifying rounds will likely be held on dry ground.
All the teams were in the pit lane modifying their car settings.
Because there is no reliable simulator data for reference, the Alfa Romeo team can only rely more on the engineers' experience and the drivers' feel for the car when modifying the car settings.
To be precise, Gasly's crew relied more on the engineers' experience, while Tanner's crew relied more on Tanner's driving skills.
Tang Che:
"No, no, no, the angle of attack of the front wing cannot be set that high, as that would increase tire wear over long distances."
"The front tire pressure needs to be lowered a bit, and the rear tire pressure needs to be higher."
"..."
Q1 starts, and the track is already more than halfway done.
Hamilton and Russell were the first to leave the pits, using semi-wet tires; Zhou Guanyu and Bottas followed Russell out of the pits, using red tires.
Tang Che, who had already installed his semi-wet tires and was ready to exit the pits, postponed his exit—first, he would see how the red tires performed. If the track conditions were suitable for the red tires, then he would switch to them for his exit.
Judging from Zhou Guanyu and Bottas' performance, the track is suitable for dry tires, but not entirely – the track is not completely dry and the temperature is relatively low, making it difficult for dry tires to get into working condition.
But Tanger still switched to red tires to leave the station.
It's true that dry tires are hard to get into working condition right now, but that won't be the case in the second half of Q1 (the track gets drier and drier as you drive, making dry tires more and more suitable). Instead of pitting for red tires later, it's better to just switch to red tires now and leave the pits.
Moreover, difficulty getting into work mode doesn't mean you can't get into work mode; it just means you can do a few more warm-up tires.
After two and a half warm-up laps, the tires were in working condition, and Tang Che did his first flying lap.
Let's also test the upgrade effect:
"The new blade is very effective, and the downforce has been significantly improved."
Every gift from fate comes with a hidden price tag, while every gift from the subsurface floor comes with a blatantly obvious price tag: "The dolphin jump is getting worse..."
Fortunately, the price isn't prohibitively high, so it doesn't significantly affect my flying hobby... at least it doesn't significantly affect my flying hobby.
Tangche crosses the finish line... 1:22.352! Taking the lead! More than 3 seconds faster than Verstappen's personal fastest lap on semi-wet tires!
Clearly, semi-weather tires are no longer suitable.
Drivers like Verstappen and Hamilton, who were using semi-wet tires, pitted to change to dry tires.
As soon as these drivers left the pits, Albon's car ignited.
The right rear brake system exploded!
Williams team forgot to remind Albon to switch the brakes from wet to dry settings, causing the brakes to be over-rear in dry conditions, which led to thermal runaway of the right rear brake system.
Debris was scattered all over the ground, triggering the red flag.
Tang Che's second flight lap was abruptly halted.
Tang Che: 彳亍口巴.
The Saudi and Australian rounds have already made Tangcher accustomed to the feeling of his flight lap being forcibly interrupted.
11 minutes later, Q1 restarted.
With 12 minutes remaining in Q1, the drivers still have plenty of time to complete a few flying laps.
Tang Che returned to the track and completed two more flight laps, setting a time of 1:20.172, thus advancing to Q2 as p9.
On paper, this is a bit below par for Tanger – Tanger's lowest final ranking in Q1 has always been P5.
It wasn't that Toncher underperformed; rather, the car setup this time didn't fully unleash its potential. Just relying on intuition to tune the car wasn't quite enough.
But this result still crushed his teammate – Gasley was eliminated at p17.
This is a much better result than its previous direct competitor, Mercedes.
Russell, p13, barely made it to the next round, while Hamilton, p16, was eliminated.
Mercedes just can't seem to get any speed on this track, it probably is because of ethane.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that Zhou Guanyu made a strong advancement in the P4 round, with a lap time even faster than Perez, who was driving a Mars rover.
Q2 was still 8 minutes away from starting, and as soon as Tancher got into the car, Mattia reminded him in the TR: "Tancher, the weather radar shows that it will rain in 8 minutes. You need to hurry up and do some flying laps after you leave the pits."
It's normal for the flight circle to be 10 seconds slower in the rain than in dry conditions. If you can't get a fast enough circle on dry ground, you'll definitely be doomed if you wait for it to rain.
Q2 starts, and Tang Che immediately leaves the station.
After a warm-up lap, I started doing flight laps... 1:19.815, currently in first place overall.
Tang Che finished the flight loop first, so he's definitely in first place right now (doge).
After the other riders completed their first flying laps, Tangche dropped to 5th place overall.
According to the weather forecast, there is still one flight lap before it rains, and the current lap time for P5 may not be enough to advance to Q3.
Tang Che needs to make an even faster flight path.
Push! Push! Push... Red flag!
Sainz went off the track and crashed hard into the wall, triggering a red flag.
That's it; most drivers don't get a second flying lap anymore.
Only two drivers who completed the second flight lap had a lap time faster than Tang Che's first flight lap.
Tang Che is on page 7.
Considering the rain that will be coming soon, the current rankings should be the final rankings for Q2.
As expected, it rained during the Red Flag period, effectively ending Q2.
This rain eliminated Tang Che's former direct competitor Russell and also kept Zhou Guanyu out of Q3.
"If Zhou Guanyu runs normally, he might finish more than 9th or 10th in Q3." — Five Star Sports
"There's nothing you can do when faced with natural disasters or man-made calamities." — Five Star Sports
After the red flag was removed, no drivers left the pits to set lap times.
With 10 minutes left in Q2, the rain essentially turned two-thirds of Q2 into wasted time.
Bad news: Q2 was terrible.
Good news: Q3 could be exciting.
In the Q3 rain race, the performance gap between the cars is narrowed, and the competition becomes more about driver ability. Pole position might be taken by a driver from a mid-table team.
Although pole position only determines the starting grid position for the sprint race, and the finishing position of the sprint race determines the starting grid position for the main race, don't forget that this is a track where overtaking is very difficult. If a midfield team gets a good position, they may be able to hold on for the 21-lap sprint race.
The mid-tier group may and should compete with the Mars group for a place, so Q3 will definitely be very intense and exciting.
However, the premise for such a strong performance is that Q3 is not too fragmented by accidents.
Starting from Q3.
Sainz's Q2 time was good enough for him to advance to Q3, but his car didn't support his participation in Q3, so only nine cars were on the track. All nine cars were using semi-wet tires.
Mattia reminded Tangche in the radio: "Tang, our priority is to stay on the track safely, and then it's about fighting for position."
Tang Che: "copy".
Copy, then warm up the tires a little and start doing flight laps.
First time slot, I got a purple item! I replaced the purple item I just got with Leclerc!
别说什幺AT03和F1-75性能差距！别说什幺AT03的性能未能完全释放！雨地里所有车都不能完全释放性能！F1-75的优势不怎幺出头！AT03的先天不足不怎幺露馅！
Mattia watched with trepidation: "Tang, the track conditions aren't entirely clear yet, and the tires aren't fully operational. Don't push so hard."
Tang Che: "The track was much drier than we expected."
The implication is that the risk is not as high as Mattia thought, and it's possible to push.
In F1 racing, it's common for drivers' ideas to conflict with the race engineers' instructions. Different race engineers will take different approaches, and Mattia's approach was: "copy."
Mattia: Believe it, belief needs no reason.
Oh! There's been an accident!
"Yellow flag for second timeout! Watch your speed! Magnussen has gone too far!" Mattia shouted. "Red flag! It's been upgraded to a red flag!"
Tang Che: Man, what can I say?
How many flight circles has been interrupted by the red flag? Tang Che didn't want to count; he would just drive the car back to the repair area.
Six minutes later, the red flag was withdrawn.
Nine cars still took to the track at the same time—Magnussen suffered no damage. And all nine cars were using semi-wet tires.
This time, Tang Che started by warming up the tires a little before doing flight laps.
Tang Che: If we don't hurry up and do the flight laps, and if there are a series of accidents, we might not even have the chance to complete a full flight lap.
The risk of this flight lap is lower than last time, since I'm more familiar with the track conditions after running it before.
First time slot, get purple!
He was quickly eliminated by Verstappen.
The second time slot is for getting purple!
Verstappen didn't get eliminated this time.
Get purple gear in the third time slot!
He was eliminated by Verstappen in the blink of an eye.
Verstappen scored 1:28.798, currently leading the match.
汤彻刷出1:28.886，暂列全场第二……第三——勒克莱尔1:28.778，强势上到p1！
Tanger immediately took his second flight lap, Verstappen immediately took his second flight lap, and Leclerc immediately took his second flight lap.
Tang Che's first timeout was green! His second timeout was green! His third timeout was purple!
1:28.356! Tang Che has made a strong run to point 1!
Verstappen clocked purple in the first time division! Purple in the second time division! Yellow flag in the third time division! Verstappen's lap time was... 1:27.999! He's even more dominant than Tangetsu in reaching P1!
Tang Che: "Shouldn't the yellow flag have already appeared when Max passed the third timeout?"
The implication is: Did Verstappen not slow down under the yellow flag?
Mattia: "We're not entirely sure..."
The Alfa Romeo team can support Tontatta if Tontatta and Perez are vying for the seat, since it's obvious to everyone that Tontatta will eventually take Perez's place.
With Tontatta and Verstappen vying for the same position, Alfa Romeo could only try to smooth things over.
AlphaToli: The crown prince and the emperor are fighting, how dare we, the Toro Rosso, interfere?
It's understandable that Alfa Romeo didn't appeal, but why didn't Ferrari?
Wolverine is a direct competitor to the snail! Wolverine should seize every opportunity to make the snail suffer!
This also needs to be appealed! Once the red flag is removed, there will only be 3 minutes left in Q3, which may not be enough time for Leclerc to complete a pole position lap!
What? Leclerc was faster than Verstappen in the third period?! Oh well, never mind then.
Although Leclerc achieved a purple score in the third timeout, he was much slower than Verstappen and Tanger in the first and second timeouts, which made his flight lap slower than his first flight lap.
No one appealed, and the tournament officials did not intervene, so Verstappen's result was valid.
Verstappen seems to have secured pole position.