The air temperature is 20 degrees Celsius and the track temperature is 19 degrees Celsius. Under this temperature, the tires obviously need to run for several laps before they can work properly. Moreover, all drivers have already put on heavy rain tires. Because the rules require that the start be started under the guidance of the safety car. In this case, all cars must be replaced with full wet tires.
If the amount of rain is just average, the race meeting will definitely not dispatch a safety car to lead the way. But today's rain is really heavy. For safety reasons, the race meeting can only dispatch a safety car. All cars will follow the safety car in order, and the safety car The number of laps led by the driver will be counted towards the entire race. In other words, in the first few laps of the race, all cars must follow the safety car at a relatively low speed and circle around the track until the race meeting confirms that the visibility is normal for racing and the safety car returns to the pits.
This situation is obviously extremely beneficial to Zhang Guan, because Zhang Guan plans to run the entire distance in one breath without entering the pit station, so he uses the heaviest fuel capacity. Following the safety car can not only consume fuel but also No lap times will be lost due to excessive vehicle weight.
At the same time, under the guidance of the safety car, the speed of the car was slower than usual, which caused much less wear and tear on the tires. Zhang Guan's set of full rain tires could also last a few more laps.
One lap, two laps, three laps, four laps... It's already the fifth lap, and the safety car still has no intention of returning, but some teams can't hold it anymore.
Some teams carry light fuel. Their original plan was to use lighter fuel and a set of super-soft tires to rush to the front at the beginning of the race. Under normal circumstances, the light fuel will arrive on the twelfth lap. When they pitted on the fifteenth lap, the super-soft tires could last almost that long, but unexpectedly a heavy rain completely disrupted their plan.
Even if driving under the safety car is more fuel-efficient, for those cars that only have 11 or 12 laps of fuel, they can't afford it. Their original plan was to rush to the front at the beginning of the race, but they didn't expect it. Now I'm circling at a slow speed with everyone, and the advantage of light fuel load is completely lost, and instead I'm consuming fuel in vain.
It is now the fifth lap, and the safety car is still outside. If the safety car runs for ten or eight more laps, the car with a light fuel load will be the first to use up its own gasoline. It is undoubtedly a very unwise choice to consume all the gasoline while circling at such a low speed, so some lightly loaded racing cars simply choose to pit for refueling at this time.
The first one to pit was Rosberg of the Williams team, and then Alonso. After the two cars came out of the pit, they would undoubtedly be at the bottom. Zhang Guanze was lucky enough to advance by two terms. Came to the eighteenth.
Finally, on the seventh lap, the situation on the track was much better, and the race meeting announced that the safety car would return to the pit area on the eighth lap.
On the eighth lap, the safety car returned to the pits and the race officially began.
If it is a static start, the first few corners will inevitably cause the drivers to compete fiercely, but there is no such problem with the dynamic start. The first few cars enter the corners relatively smoothly.
Vettel and teammate Webber, who started from pole position, successfully held on to the top two, and behind them was Barrichello who was eyeing him. Behind, McLaren's Hamilton easily overtook Ferrari's Raikkonen, but Raikkonen said there was an abnormality in his car's engine.
Later, Zhang Guan also started to accelerate. The first person he had to face was Force India driver Fisichella, and in front of Fisichella was Force India's Sutil.
"It costs 10,000 US dollars to block a lap. I don't know if the first few laps were led by the safety car, but it doesn't count as blocking Zhang Guan?" Fisichella thought to himself. He looked in the direction of Turn 1 ahead, but he The water splashed by his teammate Sutil's car made his vision a little blurry. But the flashing red taillights of Sutil's car were extremely conspicuous.
"It's almost time to brake!" Sutil listened to the sound of the engine and chose to brake.
F1 cars do not have instrument panels, but as a professional driver, you can judge the speed of the car and the engine speed by feeling and the sound of the engine, and at the same time apply brakes of different strengths.
The starting straight at the Shanghai International Circuit is very long, and the tail speed at the end of the straight can reach 310 kilometers per hour. At this time, the car is in sixth gear, and then it needs to quickly reduce to fourth gear at Turn 1, so a strong kick is required of brakes.
However, the moment Fisichella braked, a red figure suddenly appeared next to him.
"It's Zhang Guan!" Fisichella instantly understood that Zhang Guan had taken advantage of a late braking point to catch up with him.
"You can't enter the corner by braking so late!" Fisichella is also experienced. He quickly adjusted the angle of the car and entered Turn 1, hoping to put Zhang Guan behind him when exiting the corner.
But the red car in front of him flashed, and there was another taillight in front of Fisichella.
At the first corner, Zhang Guan successfully overtook Fisichella.
Force China's car is equipped with a double-layer diffuser, which has an advantage in terms of downforce, so it can have better speed in corners. Although Zhang Guan's braking point was later than Fisichella, he took advantage of slight understeer. To ensure his corner entry speed and exit speed, he easily surpassed Fisichella.
This is not only the advantage of racing, but also the crushing of technology.
At this time, under the helmet, Fisichella's expression had become very ugly. One second he was still dreaming that he could earn 10,000 yuan by blocking Zhang Guan in one lap, and then he was directly surpassed by Zhang Guan the next second.
However, Zhang Guan did not stop. His machine rushed directly into the second corner and launched an offensive against another Force India car.
…
Turn 2, Turn 3 and Turn 4 are the first difficult points of this track. These three turns are connected into a continuous hairpin turn, and the highest point of the entire track is at Turn 2. , that is to say, this continuous hairpin corner is an uphill entry and a downhill exit. During the entire process, the car will continuously reduce from fourth gear to second gear, and the vehicle speed must also quickly reduce from 200 kilometers to 100 kilometers.
The Shanghai International Circuit has a slope. If measured numerically, the lowest point of the track is an absolute height of 4.5 meters, and the highest point of the track is the position of Turn 2, with an absolute height of 11.24 meters. The lowest position of the track is The distance between the highest positions is a full 6.74 meters, which is equal to the height of three big Yaos. It's just that it covers several square kilometers, and a drop of more than 6 meters is nothing.
But for drivers, running on continuous hairpin turns with downhill slopes on rainy days also puts a certain amount of control pressure on them.
Now, Sutil of the Force India team is preparing to pass through this continuous hairpin corner. However, the pressure he faces is not only the corners, slopes and rainy weather. Zhang Guan, who is already close behind, is the main source of pressure for him.
It was raining, the road was difficult to navigate, the curves were difficult to turn, and there were soldiers chasing us. This was indeed a very tragic situation.
"What does Fisichella do! Let him block Zhang Guan, why can't he even hold on to a corner!" Sutil couldn't help but cursed secretly in his heart.
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