Lap 13. The Virtual Safety Car was ending.
Vasseur's eyes lit up. Kai didn't accelerate immediately.
According to the rules, overtaking is prohibited during a Safety Car. When the Safety Car pulls into the pits, the leader can only accelerate once they cross the "control line" (usually the start/finish line).
A Virtual Safety Car is different. There is no physical car on the track. Instead, the race control system forces all drivers to slow down to a delta time. When the system message "VSC ENDING" appears, it means the race is about to resume. About a second later, the trackside lights will turn green, and at that instant, overtaking is permitted.
The difference is crucial: the VSC is not bound by the physical location of the control line. The green light is the only signal.
In other words, whoever reacts fastest, and accelerates most decisively, seizes the advantage.
And that was exactly what Kai did.
When Monfardini gave the "VSC ending" call, Kai didn't just not floor it—he deliberately backed the pack up, slowing his pace.
Instantly, the three cars behind him were forced to slow down, catching them all off guard. Despite being eager to pounce, they had no choice but to stay in line, bottling up their frustration until the lights went green.
Kai was perfectly calm, controlling the pace, forcing Alesi and the others to simmer. He controlled them, and he watched.
The start-finish line was just ahead. Turn 1 was already rushing into view.
He waited. He was patient. The instant the green lights flashed, his foot slammed the accelerator to the floor. The car shot forward, and in a split second, he had already pulled a gap.
He had perfectly exploited the tiny, split-second gap in their reaction times.
But Alesi was going for broke. He had stayed alongside Kai, only half a car-length behind. Though his reaction was a fraction slower, he also floored it, holding his position on the outside, his speed screaming toward its maximum.
The engines roared. Alesi was clearly planning to force an overtake around the outside, while Zhou Guanyu, a car-length back, was charging up the inside. Kai was suddenly caught in a pincer move. The battle for Turn 1 had exploded.
This was all within Kai's calculations.
He angled his car half a width to the outside, seemingly to adjust his line, but in reality, he was squeezing Alesi's racing room.
He completely ignored Zhou on his inside and focused all his pressure on Alesi.
Amidst the screaming, Kai held his position, just one car-nose ahead. He didn't brake. Alesi didn't brake. If Alesi wanted to make the pass on the outside, he would now have to brake later than Kai.
Side-by-side, the two young men were playing a game of chicken, just like in the movies, hurtling toward a cliff, waiting to see who would brake last.
The slightest miscalculation meant total destruction.
A vicious glint appeared in Alesi's eyes. He didn't care. He was willing to take them both out. He would not lose a test of courage. If Kai wasn't braking, he sure as hell wasn't.
Just then, Kai turned his head and looked at him. Hidden inside the helmet, his eyes seemed to flash with a faint, knowing smile.
Alesi, who was slightly behind, couldn't see the smile, only the side of his helmet. What the...?
The next second, they dived into the corner, and... Kai braked first.
Alesi was overjoyed. I won! Hahaha! The real man always brakes last!
But his joy didn't cloud his judgment. He cranked the steering wheel, ready to sweep around the outside and take the lead, even if it meant a massive slide of oversteer.
But as he did, he saw Kai's car appearing to understeer. The nose wasn't turning in properly. It was washing out, right into Alesi's path.
Idiot!
Alesi was stunned. He had won the braking battle; he was the "real man." He had no intention of getting taken out by this moron. He wanted to win the ART seat and watch Kai drool with envy.
On pure reflex, Alesi jerked his wheel to the outside to avoid the "understeering" car. But he had no time. His left-front tire ran over the kerb and into the gravel.
He froze. In his right-side peripheral vision, he watched as Kai's car—which had not been understeering at all—carved a perfect, surgical line, kissing the inside apex, his car rotating perfectly, and sliding out of the corner with a smooth, controlled motion.
Alesi had been completely, utterly left behind.
But his shock didn't last long, because he saw another red car dive up the inside, exit the corner even faster, and pull half a car-length ahead of Kai.
Haha! That "mudblood" was so busy playing games with him that he'd let someone else sneak by! Serves him right!
Alesi was ecstatic, his own failure forgotten as he now found himself battling Armstrong.
The driver who had taken the lead... was Zhou Guanyu.
While Kai was on the outside, faking out Alesi, he had left the entire inside line wide open. Zhou hadn't hesitated for a second. He'd dived in, braked at the absolute limit, and used a flick of oversteer to rotate the car, squeezing himself past Kai to take the lead.
The pit garage was silent, mesmerized by the action. Even Fittipaldi had shut up, his eyes glued to the screen.
Was the lead about to change again?
Through the high-speed Turn 2, Zhou and Kai were nose-to-tail, hurtling toward the Turn 3-4 S-curve complex. Kai showed no intention of lifting. He stayed on the throttle, diving aggressively into the corner. Zhou, naturally, wouldn't yield, braking at the limit, holding his line.
The two cars were like intertwined bolts of lightning, their afterimages blurring as they fought through the high-speed corners, neither giving an inch.
In the middle of the S-curve, Kai adjusted his throttle, turned in, and followed Zhou. As they sliced through the first apex, Kai braked late for the second apex, Turn 4. He got his nose in first, sealing the inside line, completely blocking any chance for Zhou to cut back.
They were car-to-car, wheel-to-wheel.
In that S-curve, Zhou, who was now on the outside, had lost his advantage. He tried to brake even later, to carry more speed, but the wider line had a cost. He'd gone in too deep, and his rear end had a micro-slide, killing his exit speed.
But Kai had not.
Calm, precise, dancing on the very edge of the limit, he was glued to the track. He got on the throttle, corrected the wheel, and the car shot forward. In the span of a single breath, Zhou, who had just been in the lead, was left behind. Kai had already pulled a full car length, a burning arrow that shot onto the straight, flowing like liquid fire toward Turn 5.
He was in a class of his own.
The chaos and suspense created by the Virtual Safety Car, which had erupted in a single, violent moment, was over just as quickly. Order had been restored.
All eyes in the control room were now focused on that one, lone red afterimage, pulling away, burning so brightly that it seemed to outshine the sun.
Without realizing it, everyone was holding their breath.
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