All five red lights went out and the Malaysian Grand Prix officially began.
Zhang Guan made no mistakes at the start and successfully held his first position into Turn 1.
Turn 1 in Malaysia is a hairpin turn. As long as you follow the correct route, it is difficult to overtake in Turn 1. But immediately after Turn 1 is Turn 2. Turn 2 is a reverse corner, which is a good overtaking point on this track. If the route is too wide when exiting Turn 1, it will be easy for the opponent to occupy the favorable terrain in Turn 2 and overtake you. The short straight after Turn 2 will allow the overtaken to consolidate their advantage.
Rosberg, who was fourth at the back, had a good start. He passed two Toyotas and came to Zhang Guan's side, and wanted to grab the inside line of Turn 2 to pass Zhang Guan. However, Zhang Guan's exit speed was faster than Ross. Borg was faster. Even though Rosberg grabbed the line, he lost in the speed of exiting the corner. Zhang Guan took the lead out of Turn 2 and used the short straight ahead to consolidate his first place position.
Among the drivers facing behind, Barrichello, Raikkonen and Alonso also had a good start. They all caught up to varying degrees. Toyota Team Glock, who started in third place, had a poor start and was squeezed into fourth place. Six position.
The first corner after the start is often bloody, not to mention that the Sepang track is still a continuous loop. Fortunately, the Sepang track is wide enough, so no vehicle had an accident on the first lap.
Some sections of the track were dry and some were slightly slippery, which was the last thing the drivers wanted to encounter. Experienced drivers all know that heavy rain is not terrible. The most terrible thing is that when the light rain first begins to fall, the road is semi-dry, and the driving is particularly prone to slipping. The same is true now on the track.
There is always no shortage of unlucky people in Formula One racing. Today's first unlucky person was also born on the first lap. McLaren's Kovalainen suffered a sideslip in a relatively slippery corner and rushed directly into the buffer zone. , and he became the first driver to retire from the race. Moreover, he has retired from two consecutive races, which is a disaster for the troubled McLaren.
As the race progressed slowly, the distance between the cars also increased, and the advantages brought by the double-layer diffuser gradually became apparent. Zhang Guan firmly occupied the first place, and the gap with the second place became wider and wider. Barrichello also surpassed the connected world champion Alonso and came to the fourth position.
On the fourteenth lap, Red Bull Racing's Vettel took the lead in pitting, which was the prelude to the drivers' first pit stop. Then Rosberg, who was in second place, also chose to pit for refueling, followed closely by the two Toyota drivers.
As for Zhang Guan, he added more fuel, and the tire wear was much lighter than expected before the race, so Zhang Guan was able to hold on for a few laps. He began to take advantage of the lighter fuel volume and set the fastest lap. .
The high-temperature Sepang track has always been hard on tires, but the rain this morning made the track temperature only 36 degrees Celsius, which reduced tire granulation a lot. Even soft tires can last three days longer than usual. Four laps.
The dark clouds in the sky are getting thicker and thicker, and the fans in the open-air auditorium have taken out their umbrellas, ready for heavy rain at any time. The commentator keeps mentioning rain, but so far not a drop of rain has fallen.
"The weather forecast before the game said that it would start to rain half an hour after the game. It's already half an hour later, but the rain still hasn't started!"
"I think it will be almost here. Look at the sky. It's like this. If it doesn't rain, there will be ghosts!"
"Look, Ferrari's Raikkonen has come into the pits, and he's wearing wet tires!"
On lap 18, Ferrari driver Raikkonen came into the pits and put on a set of full wet tires.
"It hasn't rained yet, why did Ferrari put on rain tires?"
"Did Ferrari already know that heavy rain is coming soon?"
"Perhaps Ferrari was simply betting that they used full rain tires instead of semi-rain tires. This was obviously a gamble on the coming of heavy rain!"
The only difference between full rain tires and semi-rain tires is the pattern on the tires. There are more lines on the full-weather tires, and the tire's ability to drain water is stronger, making the car less likely to slip. Of course, with this comes increased friction and reduced downforce, which will seriously affect the speed of the car.
Under normal circumstances, drivers will choose semi-rain tires when there is water on the track or when the rain is not heavy. Only when the road conditions are very difficult and the rain is very heavy, drivers will choose full rain tires. Nowadays, Ferrari chooses full rain tires, which is obviously telling everyone that there will be a heavy rain.
Ferrari's switch to full-weather tires also surprised many teams, especially those teams that had just pitted for tire changes, and became even more distressed. You must know that this year’s Formula One dry tires use all slick tires, which are tires with no texture on the surface. If you use this kind of tire to run in the rain, you can survive a little drizzle, but if it really rains heavily, The slick tires will definitely slip, and they will have to stop again to put on rain tires, which means they have to stop one more time and waste more time.
Ross Brawn picked up the intercom: "Zhang Guan, you have a very good pit window on the next lap. But what I want to tell you is that Ferrari put on full-weather tires when they pitted just now!"
"It hasn't rained yet, so why is Ferrari so anxious to change to full-weather tires?" Zhang Guan asked.
"Ferrari is different from other teams. They rented weather satellites and hired specialized climate analysts. They should have predicted that it will rain soon! They are now putting on rain tires. If it rains soon, they can use When others are pitting to change to rain tires, go ahead." Ross Brawn said.
"But it hasn't rained yet. Rain tires will lose a lot of speed." Zhang Guan said.
"Indeed, the road surface is still very dry now. Compared with the heavy rain tires and soft tires, there is more than a second difference in one lap. If it doesn't rain within four to five laps, Ferrari's strategy will be in vain." Ross Brawn said.
"Then do you have any good suggestions? What tires should we change?" Zhang Guan asked.
"My suggestion is that you hold on for two more laps." Ross Brown continued: "You can slow down appropriately and protect the tires. We have already gone to inquire about the latest weather forecast.
As soon as Ross Brown finished speaking, a water droplet suddenly appeared on the goggles of Zhang Guan's helmet, and then the water droplet quickly disappeared from the goggles along with the speed of the car.
"I probably won't have to hold on for two more laps." Zhang Guan continued: "It's started to rain now!"
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(End of chapter)