All-round Athlete

Chapter 636: Heavy Rain Is Coming

All five red lights went out and the Malaysian Grand Prix officially started.

Zhang Guan did not make a mistake in his start, he successfully defended his first position and entered the first turn.

Turn 1 in Malaysia is a hairpin turn. As long as you have a good route, it is very difficult to overtake at Turn 1. But immediately after Turn 1 is Turn 2, which is a reverse corner, which is a good overtaking point on this track. If the route is widened when exiting Turn 1, it is easy for the opponent to occupy favorable terrain at Turn 2 and overtake. The short straight after Turn 2 will allow the overtakers to secure their advantage.

Rosberg, who was fourth in the back, started very well. He overtook two Toyotas and came to Zhang Guan's side. He wanted to grab the inside line of the second turn and pass Zhang Guan. However, Zhang Guan's exit speed was faster than Ross's. Borg was faster, even though Rosberg grabbed the line, but lost in the speed of exiting the corner, Zhang Guan ran out of the second turn first, and used the short straight ahead to secure his first place position.

Facing the drivers behind, Barrichello, Raikkonen and Alonso also started very well, and they all overtook to varying degrees. The Toyota team Glock, who started third, did not start well and was squeezed to the first place. six position.

The first corner after the start is often bloody, not to mention that the Sepang track is a continuous play, but fortunately the Sepang track is wide enough, so no car has an accident on the first lap.

Some sections of the track are dry, and some sections are slightly slippery, which is the last thing drivers want to encounter. Veteran drivers know that heavy rain is not terrible. The most terrible thing is that when the light rain starts, the road is semi-dry, and driving is particularly prone to skidding, and the same is true on the track now.

There is always no shortage of unlucky people in Formula One. Today's first unlucky guy was also born on the first lap. McLaren's Kovalainen suffered a side-slip on a slippery corner and rushed directly to the buffer zone , he also became the first driver to retire. Moreover, two consecutive races have been withdrawn, which can be described as a leaky house for the troubled McLaren.

As the race progressed slowly, the distance between the cars increased, and the advantages brought by the double-layer diffuser gradually emerged. Zhang Guan firmly occupied the first place, and the gap with the second place was getting bigger and bigger. And Barrichello also surpassed the connecting world champion Alonso and came to the fourth position.

On the fourteenth lap, Vettel of the Red Bull Racing Team made the first stop, which opened the prelude to the drivers' first pit stop. Then Rosberg, who was in second place, also chose to pit for refueling, followed by the two Toyota drivers.

As for Zhang Guan, he added a lot of fuel, and the tire wear was much lighter than expected before the race, so Zhang Guan was able to last a few laps, and he began to take advantage of the lighter fuel to set the fastest lap. .

The high-temperature Sepang track has always been more tire-wearing, but the rain this morning made the track temperature only 36 degrees Celsius, which reduced the tire graining a lot. Even soft tires can last three months longer than usual. four laps.

The dark clouds in the sky are getting thicker and thicker, and those car fans in the open-air auditorium have already taken out their umbrellas and are ready to deal with the heavy rain at any time. And the narrator kept mentioning the rain, but so far no drop of rain has fallen.

"The weather forecast before the game said that it would start to rain half an hour after the game, and it has been half an hour now, but the rain still hasn't fallen!"

"I think it should be soon. Look at the sky. It's like this. It's not raining, there will be ghosts!"

"Look, Ferrari's Raikkonen has entered the pit, and he changed to rain tires!"

On the eighteenth lap, Ferrari driver Raikkonen pitted, and he put on a set of full rain tires.

"It's not raining yet, why did Ferrari put on rain tires?"

"Could it be that Ferrari already knows that heavy rain is coming soon?"

"Perhaps Ferrari is simply betting. They switched to full rain tires instead of semi-wet tires. This is obviously a bet on a heavy rain!"

The only difference between full rain tires and semi rain tires is the pattern on the tires. Full rain tires have more lines on them, and the ability of the tires to drain water is also stronger, making the car less likely to skid. Of course, this will increase the friction and reduce the downforce, which will seriously affect the speed of the car.

Under normal circumstances, if there is water on the track or there is not much rain, the drivers will choose semi-wet tires. Only when the road conditions are very rough and the rain is very heavy, the drivers will choose full-wet tires. Now that Ferrari chooses all rain tires, it seems to be telling everyone that there will be a heavy rain.

Ferrari's change to full rain tires also surprised many teams, especially those teams that had just entered the pit to change tires. You must know that this year's Formula One dry tires are all slick tires, that is, tires with no texture on the surface. With this kind of tires running in the rain, you can still hold on for a little bit of light rain, but if it really rains heavily, The slick tires must have slipped, and they would have to make another stop to change to wet tires, which would mean making one more stop and wasting more time.

Ross Brown picked up the walkie-talkie: "Zhang Guan, you have a very good pit stop window on the next lap. But what I want to tell you is that Ferrari put on full rain tires when it pitted just now!"

"It hasn't rained yet, why is Ferrari so eager to change to full rain tires?" Zhang Guan asked.

"Ferrari is different from other teams. They have rented weather satellites and hired special climate analysts. They should have predicted that it will rain soon! They are now changing to rain tires. If it rains soon, they can use When others come in to change rain tires, go ahead." Ross Brown said.

"But it's not raining yet. Rain tires will lose a lot of speed." Zhang Guan said.

"Indeed, the road is still very dry now. Compared with the soft tire, the difference between the heavy rain tire and the soft tire is more than one second per lap. If there is no rain within four to five laps, Ferrari's strategy will be at a loss." Ross Brawn said.

"Then do you have any good suggestions? What tires should we change?" Zhang Guan asked.

"My suggestion is that you stick to it for two more laps." Ross Brown continued: "You can slow down the speed appropriately and protect the tires. We have already gone to inquire about the latest weather forecast.

As soon as Ross Brown finished speaking, a drop of water suddenly appeared at the position of Zhang Guan's helmet goggle, and then the drop quickly disappeared on the goggle along with the speed of the car.

"I probably don't have to persist for two laps." Zhang Guan continued, "It's starting to rain now!"

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