For the next stretch of the race, there was little change in the top six positions. The following two timed sectors did not offer good overtaking opportunities, and the improving track conditions meant no drivers made errors by running onto wet patches.

On lap 48, after completing this lap, the DRS was activated by the race officials. However, this lap's DRS had little impact on the top ten drivers, because by the time DRS was enabled, they had already passed the DRS detection point, and the Imola circuit only has one DRS detection point. So this lap was pretty much unchanged.

But Leclerc noticed something unusual—Qin Miao in front of him was running the race at a tire-conserving pace, and his use of ERS was very short.

Based on Leclerc's race experience, he could immediately tell that Qin Miao was recharging his battery.

The most crucial point was that Leclerc's lap time was still about 0.3 seconds faster than Qin Miao's, but he couldn't overtake...

Qin Miao always managed to position his car at a critical point when Leclerc was considering an overtake, using methods that didn't break the rules, making it extremely frustrating for Leclerc and causing him to miss great overtaking opportunities.

Leclerc couldn't figure out why Qin Miao was doing this.

Shouldn't you distance yourself from the car behind as soon as you have the advantage? Why are you dawdling? Aren't you afraid that I'll overtake you on the main straight using DRS and ERS after completing this lap?

But Leclerc quickly put aside these extraneous thoughts as Verstappen behind him launched an attack.

At Turn 7, in a V-shaped bend, Verstappen braked late to take the inside line from Leclerc, attempting to replicate Qin Miao's maneuver: squeezing Leclerc off track on the exit of Turn 7.

Of course, Leclerc was no pushover, and after noticing Verstappen's intentions, he immediately knew how to counter.

It's just a crossover maneuver, hasn't every driver used this method to defend against an attack or overtake on the track?

Leclerc let Verstappen pass, took a crossover line himself, and regained his position with faster speed on the exit.

After a tussle, the gap originally 0.6 seconds between Qin Miao and Leclerc stretched to 0.9 seconds, showing how much speed can be lost if a corner isn't taken on the optimal line.

On lap 49, Verstappen behind Leclerc opened his DRS; however, Leclerc also had DRS and was benefiting from slipstreaming the car ahead, so although Verstappen closed the gap between himself and Leclerc, he didn't create an overtaking opportunity.

The gap between Qin Miao and Leclerc only shrank from 0.9 to 0.3 seconds, and Leclerc was still unable to overtake Qin Miao, so the top three positions remained unchanged.

Just like at the front, after the restart, apart from Qin Miao forcing Verstappen off track and taking the position, there was no change in the top group.

As the race progressed, Leclerc gradually noticed something was off: Qin Miao's pace seemed to slow slightly.

Yet, he didn't have much time to ponder as Verstappen behind him, relying on his car's performance, began to attack again.

Exiting Turn 15, Verstappen's exit speed behind was noticeably faster than Leclerc's. Upon realizing this, Leclerc naturally blocked his inside line first. With Verstappen's superior exit speed, blocking his attempt to overtake became impossible, so Leclerc had to hold the inside line entering the corner to stop Verstappen from taking a decent angle.

Ideally, when approaching the corner's apex, Verstappen might go off track due to the poor entry angle.

Thankfully, Qin Miao was also slow entering the corner this time, blocking Leclerc's outside line. With his inside blocked by Leclerc, and Qin Miao's Mercedes on the outside, even if Verstappen ran side by side with Leclerc, his poor entry angle would cause him to exit the corner slower than Qin Miao.

Thus, Verstappen's attack ended in vain, and Leclerc safely defended against it.

On lap 50, Qin Miao led the drivers across the finish line, heading into Turn 1 and commencing another battle at Turn 2.

With the scuffle between the two cars behind him at Turn 17, Qin Miao seized a breather. Heading into Turn 2, Qin Miao maintained his advantage, keeping a car length's gap ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen.

Verstappen, after missing an overtake at Turn 17 in the previous lap, lost his rhythm. Even though he wasn't overtaken by the cars behind, he couldn't find an opportunity to overtake Leclerc before Turn 2, even with DRS.

But Hamilton, further back, gave Mercedes some reassurance by using DRS, ERS, and slipstream to pass Sainz directly on the straight before Turn 2.

Sainz also struggled, attempting to defend and squeeze Hamilton's entry line.

Unfortunately, with a massive 20 km/h speed difference, all of Sainz's moves were in vain.

The rankings changed once again. With thirteen laps remaining, Hamilton had moved up to fourth with a new set of soft tires, two positions gained, setting his sights on Verstappen, who was locked in battle with Leclerc ahead.

Truthfully, after overtaking Sainz and seeing the three cars just two seconds ahead, Hamilton felt surreal—was Qin Miao really that good at blocking?

He said he'd block, and he blocked, yet how did it end up with him leading?

Moreover, were none of the front-runners setting lap times? Constantly tussling after three laps into the race, only creating a two-second gap?

Verstappen, too, was getting anxious but felt helpless.

After being forced off track by Qin Miao, he was, fortunately, undamaged, but both his attempts to attack were blocked by Leclerc.

After two failed attacks, Verstappen watched helplessly as Hamilton started closing in from behind, piling pressure on him.

On lap 52, Qin Miao maintained his rhythm, and even though Leclerc was eager to shake off Verstappen's attacks, Qin Miao was blocking him firmly ahead, making any escape from Verstappen's attacks reliant on Qin Miao's moves.

Moreover, at Turn 2, the corner most likely for overtaking Qin Miao, Verstappen behind would always eye Leclerc's position, launching attacks, which forced Leclerc to defend.

So after another two laps, Leclerc still hadn't taken down Qin Miao. The good news was that Verstappen hadn't overtaken Leclerc either, but in his battle with Leclerc, he lost a significant amount of speed, remaining stuck in third place.

The bad news was Hamilton had, in the meantime, run two laps in clean air, closing into the DRS zone within one second behind Verstappen.

It's Turn 2 again.

Qin Miao, Leclerc, and Verstappen remained tense, preparing for another round of attacks and defenses in this lap.

Leclerc held the inside line, but remembering Qin Miao's tactics of squeezing him off completely, he left a margin, about 0.7 car widths, on the inside.

This way, no matter how much Verstappen compressed the space, Leclerc would still have some entry angle.

Also, the space Leclerc left wasn't enough for the car behind to exploit a gap.

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