Chapter 92 First Victory (Second Update)
Soon, on the sixth lap after the safety car restarted, with almost no impact, Wu Shi set a new fastest lap time of 1:52.232, directly leading Bromqvist's lap time by nearly a second.
Alan TR: "You're two seconds ahead of Bromqvist. Be careful with your tires and engine."
Wu Shi TR: "copy."
He glanced at Bromqvist's yellow race car in the rearview mirror; it was about two and three body lengths away, which was undoubtedly a very safe distance.
However, he did not let his guard down and continued to cruise at a lap time of about one minute and fifty-three seconds, while having Alan keep an eye on Bromquist's situation.
The race consists of eighteen laps. After the initial battles and restarts, the front row positions are secure, and there's not much to see anymore.
The commentator's gaze naturally shifted from Wu Shi, who was far ahead, to the group behind them.
Although Bromqvist couldn't catch up with Wu Shi, he maintained a considerable distance from Ocon, with an overall difference of about 0.4 seconds.
However, Ocon was under pressure from King and dared not attack Bromquist, so Bromquist gradually widened the gap.
Following them, Antonio Foco, along with Orr and Latifi, formed a trio, while Félix, who collided with Max, maintained his eighth place, which was quite an achievement.
After briefly introducing the situation on the field, the commentator realized that the outcome was likely similar to the end, so he started to talk about other things.
"Wu, who is in first place, has achieved brilliant success in the field of karting. As I have mentioned before, this year is his first year in F3, and he is clearly still outstanding in open-wheel formula.
"According to his own statement, he only needs to achieve 21 victories this year to secure a seat in next year's F1 season. This seems crazy to me, but judging from his performance today, it doesn't seem impossible."
"You should know that in the field of karting, Mr. Wu has been able to achieve victory in almost every level of the Europa Championship and World Championship."
"To date, he is the only karting driver to have won the world championships in both the KF and KZ categories."
The commentator stopped talking and the camera switched to the yellow car in second place. He continued:
Tom Bromqvist, who is in second place, is also an outstanding driver. He was born in 1993 and has been involved in F3 since 2010. He is very experienced.
He joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2012 and competed in some races for the EuroInternational team.
"In last year's Europa Formula 3 Championship, he single-handedly lifted the EuroInternational team to fifth place in the standings."
After mentioning the second-place finisher, he went on to talk about Ocon, King, and others. He paused before speaking when he got to the last driver:
"It is worth noting that Tatiana Calderon is still competing this year, but she has switched from the original Signature team to Jo Zeller Racing, which was on the advice of F1 driver Lewis Hamilton's father, Anthony Hamilton."
The commentary paused here because Tatiana Calderon is the only female driver on the track.
Female drivers who reach this level often overcome more difficulties than their male counterparts.
She also participated in the FIA Europa Formula 3 Championship and the United Kingdom Formula 3 International Series last year.
She became the first woman in the history of Formula 3 in the United Kingdom to stand on the podium.
While F3 is not as difficult to drive as F1, those who achieve results in this class are truly exceptional.
After the commentators finished talking about the 24 drivers on the track (two of whom retired), there were still five laps left in the race, and the positions of the front row drivers had not changed since the safety car.
The riders behind often fight, but the result is usually a huge mistake by one side, which is overtaken directly. We have yet to see wheel-to-wheel battles.
Once in cruise mode, Wu Shi controlled his speed, always keeping a two-second gap between himself and Bromquist.
In the first few laps, Bromqvist tried to close the gap, but after a 0.3-minute push in the previous timeout, he would fall behind again in the next timeout.
He eventually had no choice but to give up.
With 36 minutes remaining in the race, Wu Shi had reached the last few corners of the final lap.
Twenty seconds later, as he rounded Turn 18, he could see the waving checkered flag.
He crossed the finish line under the checkered flag with an almost relaxed posture.
"Wu crossed the finish line first! He won the championship! Second place went to Bromqvist! Third place to Ocon! Fourth place to King!"
The commentator speaks very fast, and needs to promptly announce each athlete who crosses the finish line.
When Wu Shi crossed the finish line, cheers erupted in one area of the stadium, attracting the attention of the cameras.
Wu Shi gradually slowed down, unaware of the situation in the audience. He opened his goggles to let in some fresh air and cool himself down.
"Well done! We've completed one-twenty-first of the mission!" came Alan's TR message.
"Yes!" Wu Shi raised his voice slightly.
Although he didn't go through a fierce battle in this race, it was a very simple PTW race, but isn't it great that it was his first F3 race win?
After circling around once, the race car was driven back to its assigned position in the pit area for a weighing check.
When Wu Shi stepped off the race car, the crew members cheered outside the fence. He didn't really like rushing over to hug people because he always felt that doing so was like hitting them with his helmet.
But that's the custom, so he launched a headbutt attack and hugged Alan and the others.
After the weighing was completed, reporters immediately came to interview the person.
"Hey Wu, congratulations on your first victory! This is your first win in F3, how does it feel?"
"It feels great, but as we all know, this is just the beginning, and I'm still quite far from my goal."
"Oh? You mean the twenty-one wins?"
"Yes."
"Wow, great! We'll keep track of the numbers with you and hope you achieve your goal. You'll be starting from pole position for both your races this afternoon and tomorrow. Will you stay in PTW?"
"Well, I think it's fine. The race went pretty well today, so I don't think there's a big problem."
"Very good, congratulations again on winning the first match and taking home a championship!"
"Thanks."
After finishing the interview, Wu Shi walked to the back area and saw Verstappen standing there wearing a team T-shirt.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"No, it was just a minor collision. I wasted a chance." Verstappen was somewhat disappointed, but not dejected.
Verstappen didn't need comfort from anyone other than his father, and Wu Shi knew this, so he stopped dwelling on the match and instead asked, "What kind of food have you prepared for lunch?"
"Oh, the food in the United Kingdom is really mediocre." Verstappen shrugged; it was a truly disheartening thing.