And this time Ferrari surprisingly didn't mess up, with a tire change time of 2.5 seconds, which is considered decent. However, since Leclerc pitted at the same time as Qin Miao, there was certainly no possibility of overtaking Qin Miao during the tire change.

Instead, after exiting the pit, Leclerc was even slightly left behind by Qin Miao.

After leaving the pit, Qin Miao focused on Leclerc behind him because Qin Miao was not planning to pit again, so for the next period, Qin Miao didn't plan to defend too aggressively against Leclerc.

Because excessive defensive actions would also result in higher tire wear, which would be somewhat disadvantageous for the overall race.

A lap later, Qin Miao received good news: Leclerc was indeed faster than him, but not by much—only about 0.2 seconds per lap—and because at this time, only the racing line on the track was dry, the rest of the track was still wet. Racing on it with dry tires would cause a significant drop in speed, and could even result in a loss of grip leading to a car losing control.

This invisibly added another layer of geographic advantage to Qin Miao's defensive capabilities.

Initially, defending against Leclerc was not very difficult for Qin Miao. Now, having switched to dry tires and with track conditions gradually improving, Leclerc couldn't catch up to Qin Miao at all, and Qin Miao's pressure of defending against Leclerc became even less.

Just when Qin Miao thought the rest of the race would enter a routine cruising mode, he suddenly noticed a Mercedes parked on the gravel when he was passing through turn T7.

Even though the number 44 on the shark fin of that Mercedes was not very visible, there were only two Mercedes cars on the field—a teammate of Hamilton's in one, and Qin Miao was driving the other.

And as Qin Miao passed by, Hamilton's car had just started reversing, preparing to drive out of the buffer zone.

It was foreseeable that with this mistake, Hamilton's race was half ruined; winning was out of the question, all that remained was to see how many points he could finish with.

All the commentators regretted Hamilton's mistake because initially, all the focus of the race was on him and Verstappen ahead of him. Now, with Hamilton out of the title race due to his mistake, the race's appeal in the eyes of commentators and audience would naturally be greatly reduced.

The good news is that after reversing, Hamilton returned to the track. The bad news is that there were still issues after returning, as the right front endplate of Hamilton's car hit the retaining wall when it charged into the gravel, causing a piece of the endplate to fall off, now constantly scraping the ground.

No doubt, Hamilton would have to pit again to change the front wing.

And after he pitted again for a tire change and replaced the front wing, he fell to the tenth position.

The good news is that Hamilton remained in the points zone, but the bad news is that he had only one point.

However, the race was not yet over, with 29 laps remaining until the end, Hamilton still had enough time to chase the front.

The team instantly informed Qin Miao of the main reason for Hamilton's mistake; at the apex of turn T7, the left side tires went onto the wet track outside the racing line.

T7 is a V-shaped turn, requiring quite a lot of mechanical grip. The tires, not fully warmed up, went onto the water and directly lost grip, causing the car to understeer as a whole, then Hamilton went straight towards the buffer zone and barrier.

After hearing the team's report, Qin Miao slightly clicked his tongue with some regret. Qin Miao couldn't place himself in Hamilton's perspective at that time, but if it had been him, he wouldn't have been so impatient at T7 even if there was slower traffic ahead.

But what's done is done, and Qin Miao didn't dwell too much on why Hamilton made a mistake. Instead, after coming back to his senses, he was somewhat surprised to discover that he seemed to be in second place now.

With Hamilton out, only Verstappen was ahead, and barring accidents today, he would claim his second F1 Grand Prix podium and his first runner-up trophy in life.

Leclerc behind Qin Miao also picked up a lucky break. Initially blocked heavily by Qin Miao, he had already mentally prepared himself not to get a podium in this race.

But Hamilton's mistake gave him a pleasant surprise.

On lap forty-three, Leclerc could no longer apply pressure on Qin Miao. As the race proceeded, track conditions improved, and Qin Miao's pace visibly quickened.

Leclerc found with some shock that Qin Miao gradually widened the gap between them, now the gap had reached 1.5 seconds.

Meanwhile, after Hamilton's mistake, he started a mad chase, now up to seventh place and beginning to attack Ricardo in sixth.

Judging by Hamilton's speed, a return to the podium was virtually impossible, but catching up to the top four before the end was still somewhat plausible.

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