Chapter 267: A 9.9-Second Advantage
All wet races typically unfold this way, with a high probability of various collisions at the start, leading to chaotic scenes.
A single misjudgment of braking at Turn 1 can trigger a chain of accidents.
Just a moment ago, everyone from sixth place onwards was affected.
Fernando Alonso and Romain Grosjean suffered punctures, Valtteri Bottas sustained front wing damage, and Will Stevens' left rear wheel was torpedoed by his teammate.
These drivers who experienced collisions all pitted at the end of the first lap to change tyres.
The others were relatively normal, switching to intermediate tyres, but Bottas was different.
"Huh, Bottas went straight for slick tyres after pitting?" The commentator was also very surprised when he saw the camera footage.
How could he dare to switch to slick tyres when the track was incredibly slippery?
And it was Bottas?
This kind of attempt was nothing more than a gamble that the track would dry quickly, but it was still drizzling occasionally.
It was initially thought that the yellow flags at the start would keep the drivers alert to the slippery track conditions.
But just as Turn 2 began, Felipe Nasr attempted to overtake Marcus Ericsson on the inside but misjudged the grip, unable to brake at all.
Bang! Whoosh!
His front wing crashed into the sidepod, scattering debris everywhere.
Race control's handling of this was still a single sector yellow flag, with no safety car deployment.
Accidents occurred one after another behind, capturing all the camera's attention.
When the camera returned to the front runners on Turn 3, everyone was surprised to find that Wu Shi had pulled a 1.3-second lead over Lewis Hamilton!
This immediately sparked speculation among the commentators.
"Is this because the FW37 has extraordinary wet weather capabilities?!"
"No, you need to judge calmly at this moment. This is a result dominated by Wu Shi's excellent personal ability."
For comparison, everyone naturally looked at Wu Shi's teammate.
Felipe Massa, who started in 7th place, had now dropped to 13th.
Of course, Massa encountered a collision at the start, so that couldn't be counted.
However, the fact that the two were consistently pulling away by at least 1 second per lap now was enough to explain part of the problem.
Behind, Nasr, who had re-pitted to change his front wing, also switched to slick tyres, mimicking Bottas.
Both drivers lost a lot of positions due to pitting, so they naturally wanted to take a gamble.
On the Circuit of the Americas, the wet surface did dry up at a pleasing rate, but only in certain areas.
Overall, the track remained slippery, and most drivers didn't dare to push hard, their primary goal still being to keep the car stable.
Wu Shi was also very focused while leading. When he had a moment of free time on the main straight, he touched a button under his steering wheel.
Pressing this button meant he believed that slick tyres would be more suitable for the current track conditions than intermediate tyres.
The race crew would then immediately respond whether to switch to slick tyres based on the subsequent weather conditions.
This was a crucial part of this race.
After all, slick tyres are not just one or two seconds faster than intermediate tyres, but ten seconds faster!
If he seized the opportunity one lap before Hamilton, that would be a ten-second gap!
So, this was the first key point of this race.
Wu Shi continued to cruise. With intermediate tyres, Hamilton was evenly matched with him.
And being evenly matched often meant the car behind couldn't overtake, even Hamilton didn't dare to make aggressive moves in the rain and fog.
"Can I pull away?"
Wu Shi suddenly asked, feeling that the engine still had some power left.
Moreover, Hamilton's lap times were currently restricted, so he might as well try to speed up as much as possible.
"Yes, set mode 3. There will still be some light rain later, but no heavy showers. The track is expected to continue drying," Jonathan told him.
For two consecutive laps, Wu Shi's times were within 1 minute 57.1 seconds.
Hamilton, however, showed extremely unstable performance. First, he managed 1 minute 57.4 seconds, barely keeping up, but then quickly dropped to 1 minute 58 seconds on the next lap.
This was not due to Hamilton's lack of wet weather driving ability; it was the significant loss of downforce caused by following another car in the rain, which was very dangerous.
And if Hamilton didn't follow the car and took a different line than Wu Shi.
He would find that those lines were easy enough for overtaking slow drivers, but to deal with Wu Shi, that was wishful thinking.
Of course, as the race progressed, Hamilton's adaptability to wet conditions was not as good as Nico Rosberg's.
However, just as Wu Shi was about to further extend his lead and pull away, race control deployed the safety car.
"Debris still remains at Turn 1. It's now Turn 5, and the Virtual Safety Car is out."
Jonathan informed Wu Shi of the track conditions in detail.
In his heart, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful; the safety car would definitely allow Hamilton to close the gap.
On Turn 6, Nasr and Bottas took advantage of the safety car to pit and switch back to intermediate tyres.
They had gambled incorrectly; the track was still wet, and the consequence of their wrong gamble was falling to the back of the pack, about ten seconds behind most others.
It could be said to be quite miserable.
On Turn 8, the safety car withdrew, and the race restarted.
Rosberg, who had been left behind, had a very fast start, accelerating past Daniel Ricciardo and then completing an overtake on Daniil Kvyat at Turn 12.
The brilliant manoeuvre of overtaking two Red Bulls in a row made the race crew cheer loudly for him.
What a relief!
It should be known that Hamilton's actions at Turn 1 on the first lap were truly despicable.
Even with all the race crew resources skewed towards Hamilton, this still caused dissatisfaction among Rosberg's race crew.
Even a mud doll has three points of anger!
Now everyone was looking forward to Rosberg overtaking Hamilton and showing this arrogant driver not to be so conceited!
Williams Racing only paid slight attention to Rosberg's situation before refocusing on Wu Shi and Hamilton.
The distance Wu Shi had previously pulled out was ruined once the safety car came out.
However, Wu Shi, who continued to lead, had an increasingly fast momentum, and the FW37 raised a long spray of rain on the track.
On Turn 9, Wu Shi set the fastest lap, directly achieving a best time of 1 minute 56.930 seconds.
Even though Hamilton's speed this lap was good, he was still pulled away by a 0.146-second gap.
"Wu Shi's wet lap times are quite impressive!"
"Didn't they say Williams Racing's aerodynamics were poor? How is he running faster than Mercedes?" The commentator was genuinely puzzled.
Wet weather would equalise the power differences between teams but exaggerate the aerodynamic differences.
For example, Red Bull's Ricciardo also managed a lap time within 1 minute 56.9 seconds just a lap ago.
Both were faster than Hamilton.
"You ran a very good lap. If you can go faster, we want you to go faster," Jonathan immediately said over the radio.
Wu Shi, however, didn't have the extra energy to reply to Jonathan.
In the rain, there was no room for any small mistakes; he had to constantly monitor the changes in grip of both front and rear wheels.
But the track conditions differed every lap, and the non-linear fluctuations in grip meant that the driver needed to adjust their driving every lap.
Whoosh!
The speeding car kicked up a spray of water, forming a wall of mist.
The intermediate tyres also had excellent drainage capabilities, temporarily pushing the water on the road aside after rolling over it.
Wu Shi controlled it just right, allowing the intermediate tyres to run on the optimal line with the strongest grip.
Swish!
1 minute 56.854 seconds.
He set an even faster lap.
In contrast, Hamilton, who had been at 1 minute 57.076 seconds on the previous lap, saw his speed instantly drop to 1 minute 57.812 seconds this lap.
He was pulled away by one second in a single lap!
Not to mention how surprised outsiders were, even the Williams Racing team themselves were stunned, asking, "Are we really that fast?"
Bono's voice still showed little emotion as he told Hamilton over the radio:
"Lewis, set Strat 3. You're being pulled away, and this is very dangerous."
Hamilton didn't have time to reply over the radio. Even on the main straight, if the acceleration phase wasn't handled well, the car could still slide.
On Turn 10, Wu Shi led Hamilton by 1.9 seconds, Rosberg by 2.7 seconds, Kvyat by 3.9 seconds, Ricciardo by 4.7 seconds, Sergio Pérez by 10.2 seconds, Sebastian Vettel by 10.8 seconds, and Max Verstappen by 12.1 seconds.
And before Hamilton could struggle to keep up with Wu Shi, the two Red Bull drivers had already increased their speed to a point where Mercedes had to defend.
It was as if, just as Adrian Newey said, Red Bull was only an engine away from being a championship contender.
In the rain, Red Bull's powerful aerodynamic efficiency came into play, completely unafraid of Mercedes.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
On Turn 12, Kvyat caught up with Rosberg and was preparing to overtake on the final corner, but the car slid on the exit, failing to overtake and instead being re-overtaken.
Ricciardo also seized this opportunity from his teammate's mistake, completing the overtake and taking over the baton of challenging Mercedes.
On the wet main straight, Mercedes and Red Bull were already evenly matched.
But Ricciardo, being behind, had the slipstream, so his speed was actually faster, and he was clearly about to launch an attack as they entered the corner.
Rosberg noticed this situation and braked very late at Turn 1, but the car didn't brake as he intended; instead, it slid.
The sliding car was uncontrollable, and if it weren't for this being a rare, extremely steep uphill corner on an F1 track, Rosberg would certainly not have been able to complete the final deceleration.
Ricciardo decisively seized such a huge gap, easily completing the overtake from the inside.
At this, the Rosberg race crew members immediately deflated.
Was that another mistake?
Now in third place, with clean air, Ricciardo was unstoppable.
On Turn 13, he quickly clocked a time of 1 minute 56.680 seconds, which was nearly 0.2 seconds slower than not only Hamilton but also Wu Shi!
However, Ricciardo was not Wu Shi after all and couldn't control his lap times with such extreme precision.
On Turn 14, he was slightly slower again, only managing 1 minute 56.898 seconds.
But even so, he still caught up with Hamilton in two laps, with the gap rapidly shrinking from over 1 second to 0.3 seconds.
Then, on Turn 15, Ricciardo launched an attack on Hamilton.
With better wet weather grip, Ricciardo was practically doing whatever he wanted, constantly probing Hamilton's reactions from behind.
This constant back-and-forth made Mercedes look like a child stumbling in the rain.
This wasn't Hamilton's problem; if Ricciardo were to attack Wu Shi, Wu Shi would also be in a similar situation.
After all, Wu Shi's speed wasn't due to superior wet weather car setup, but because he could always find the areas with the best grip and simply pull away.
At Turn 18, Ricciardo braked late, easily passing Hamilton.
Hamilton gave his all this lap, clocking a time of 1 minute 56.568 seconds while being chased.
But what about Ricciardo? After passing Hamilton, his speed became even more fluid, and he only took 1 minute 55.362 seconds this lap!
"Track conditions are improving, and there hasn't been rain for a long time."
Wu Shi suddenly said over the radio, making the commentators think he was going to pit for slick tyres.
Especially Mercedes, even though they had been overtaken twice by Ricciardo, they were still waiting for the track to dry up for an opportunity, so their eyes remained firmly fixed on Wu Shi.
Mercedes' strategy team considered the possibility of Wu Shi switching to slick tyres, even going so far as to have the race crew prepare slick tyres, just waiting to copy Wu Shi's move.
Jonathan naturally noticed this situation, and his brow furrowed slightly as the strategic disadvantage of the leading driver became apparent.
However, sometimes this disadvantage could also be turned into an advantage.
He pondered how to communicate with Wu Shi over the radio.
While the strategy teams of both race crews were battling it out, on Turn 16 of the track, Rosberg actually caught up with Hamilton and launched an attack at Turn 12.
However, Hamilton easily defended and overtook him; Rosberg was still not aggressive enough.
The struggle between the two drivers made Toto Wolff look displeased.
On Turn 17, Max Verstappen also overtook Sebastian Vettel at Turn 11.
This startled Vettel, but luckily, the subsequent straight allowed him to re-overtake.
At this moment, Wu Shi briefly pressed a button on his steering wheel.
Jonathan noticed and immediately signalled to the personnel behind him.
The race crew was seen running out with tyres.
The track cameras almost immediately noticed and focused directly on the Williams Racing Pit Box.
"Ah! Is Wu Shi going to be the first to switch to slick tyres?!" The commentator exclaimed.
"He should be thinking about it. The track is getting drier and drier. You can see fully dry racing lines in many places," another commentator added.
"No, I mean Wu Shi currently holds the advantage. His speed has been increasing over the past few laps, now around 1 minute 54.7 seconds," the first commentator said.
From Turn 15 onwards, Wu Shi's lap times entered the 1 minute 55-second range.
On Turn 17, he directly reached 1 minute 54.8 seconds.
Although this lap time was about 0.2 seconds slower than Ricciardo's every lap, it was nearly 1 second faster than Hamilton's every lap!
After three laps, the gap to Hamilton had already stretched to over 5 seconds.
Therefore, as long as he continued to run on intermediate tyres, Wu Shi's lead would only grow larger.
So, does Wu Shi now believe he will have faster speed if he switches to slick tyres?
No one knew what this was about. Mercedes faced an extremely short decision-making window—should they recall Hamilton?
The strategy team considered two situations—the conditions for using slick tyres were ripe; Rosberg was faster than Hamilton and very likely to attack subsequently.
Recall!
"BOX BOX BOX," Bono Horsch, Hamilton's race engineer, said.
At the end of Turn 17, Wu Shi passed the Pit Lane entrance without any action, driving straight past.
Ricciardo did the same, but Hamilton plunged into the Pit Lane, much to the delight of Rosberg, who was only 0.5 seconds behind him.
"Oh! Hamilton went in first!" The commentator exclaimed.
However, the other commentator didn't react much. He said, "The track conditions are indeed suitable for slick tyres now."
"But Williams Racing made a feint, so they must have something in mind," the first commentator said.
In fact, that was exactly the case.
After Hamilton pitted, Wu Shi pressed the button three times in quick succession, confirming he would pit on Turn 18.
Jonathan, of course, knew why Wu Shi didn't pit on Turn 17.
Their agreed-upon code of a single short press meant preparing to pit but not certain, while three presses confirmed the pit stop.
Hamilton's tyre change took 2.7 seconds, and he switched to soft tyres.
He emerged in 9th place, a full 35 seconds behind Wu Shi.
Most critically, too many cars were blocking his way ahead.
At the end of Turn 17, Wu Shi set his final fastest lap on intermediate tyres, a 1 minute 54.314 seconds.
However, this was soon broken by Ricciardo's 1 minute 54.197 seconds.
At the end of Turn 18, Wu Shi pitted.
By Turn 19, Hamilton's first slick tyre lap time came out, 1 minute 55.101 seconds, which was not ideal.
But compared to this, everyone was more concerned about Wu Shi's situation after he came out.
Swish!
On the main straight, before Hamilton was even visible, Wu Shi slowly turned out of the Pit Lane exit ahead.
A 9.9-second advantage!