All-round Athlete

Chapter 728 Target: New Record

As soon as Zhang Guan got off the plane, he was blocked by He Yiming.

"Brother He, why did you come to Singapore?" Zhang Guan asked in surprise.

"European games are a bit far away, I can't go there, Singapore is so close, of course I have to come and see your game in person!" He Yiming smiled, and pulled Zhang Guan aside while talking and laughing, and then the voice But suddenly became serious.

"Did you offend someone again?" He Yiming asked.

"Offend people? No! How can I offend people for such a good person!" Zhang Guan thought about it carefully, and then said: "In addition to the 500 million dollars owed to me by the Maria family, there is also Sebastian That guy Anna was messed up by me, by the way, and Honda company was tricked by me, and no one else hates me!"

"It's not offending anyone?" He Yiming shook his head helplessly, and then said: "Someone wants to fight with you."

"Fight? What do you mean? Boxing? Who is it?" Zhang Guan asked several questions in succession.

"Ruslan Chagayev, nicknamed 'Bai Tyson', have you heard of it?" He Yiming asked.

"I heard that a Uzbekistan heavyweight champion and WBA gold belt winner is known as Tyson's successor. So people nicknamed him 'White Tyson'. Having said that, I don't know I don’t know him, so I shouldn’t have offended him, why did he fight me?” Zhang Guan said.

"Then it seems that what Chagayev said may be true." He Yiming continued: "The reason Chagayev gave was to see your butterfly walk, so I hope to have a fight with you It’s a friendly match. He knows that you are participating in the F1 competition, so he said that you can wait. You play a friendly match."

"Let's think about it. We need to find out whether this Chagayev has any other intentions. And even if we really want to fight, we have to wait until the end of the F1 season. The Singapore Grand Prix is ​​a night race, and I haven't run a night race yet. What!" Zhang Guan said.

...

The Singapore Grand Prix, which started last year, created a precedent for Formula One's night races. Before the Singapore Grand Prix, the car race had never been held at night.

Given the size of the racetrack, it is obviously a very costly thing to completely cover a racetrack with lights, and with the utilization rate of the racetrack, it is not worth the candle to install street lights for the racetrack. The reason why the Singapore Grand Prix can start the night battle mode is mainly because it is a street race. The competition venue is located at Marina Bay, which surrounds the southernmost tip of Singapore. It is also the busiest place in Singapore at night. Even at night, it is surrounded by lights. In order to adapt to the F1 competition, Singapore specially laid a special lighting cable here, installed more than 1,600 floodlights, and the brightness on the track can reach four times that of ordinary stadiums.

Since it is a street race, it naturally has the characteristics of a street race. The track is narrow and bendy, and it is not easy to overtake. In fact, the same is true. The Singapore track has 23 corners in total, and one of them is a first-block corner, which is very rare in F1 competitions. At the level of an F1 racer, cornering in second gear is considered a very slow speed. Except for starting, the driver will not drive in first gear at all, and Singapore's No. 13 turn is difficult for most drivers. The gear must be downshifted to first gear to go through the corner.

On this kind of track with many curves, the downforce of the car has become a very important factor in the race. Obviously, the Haicang race has become a competition between China Power and Red Bull Racing. China Power has the most perfect double-layer diffuser, which can allow the car to gain more downforce, thus gaining an advantage in corners, while Red Bull's car has the most perfect aerodynamics, which is also a huge advantage on this track.

Ferrari, which had an eye-catching performance on the high-speed track in the first two races, lost its competitiveness after coming to Singapore. At least in the practice race, the performance of the two Ferrari drivers was very mediocre. The kind of dominance that stands.

It was the first time for Zhang Guan to participate in a race at night, but when he got on the track, he found that it was no different from the race in the daytime, at least his sight was not affected, and it was even better than that of the rain fight. The difference is that the sky is white during the day and black at night.

"No wonder people say that the night battle in Singapore is just a gimmick!" Zhang Guan thought to himself.

For a racing driver, the night race is no different from the daytime race, and even the roadside road signs become more conspicuous due to reflections. The rest of the Singapore station is just a gimmick of "night race".

Pre-race predictions all believed that the Singapore station would be a two-horse race between China Power and Red Bull Racing, but a spoiler appeared in the qualifying race——McLaren's Hamilton. The overwhelming praise of Zhang Guan in the media recently obviously stimulated Hamilton. Zhang Guan won the championship four races ahead of schedule. Hamilton won the championship last year by fluke in the final race, and it was still based on Ferrari's mistakes. At the same time, Zhang Guan set the record of winning the championship in the first year of participating in the competition, and also broke Hamilton's record of winning the runner-up in the first year of participating in the competition. People can't help but compare Zhang Guan with Hamilton, and the final conclusion is that Zhang Guan is better than Hamilton.

Hamilton is a strong person, he is the kind of driver who can fight with his teammates for his own victory, so he can't accept the result that he is not as good as Zhang Guan, so he ran very hard in this race. Prove yourself with a champion in Singapore.

Hamilton's speed is really fast, and he ran to the limit. There are several corners and even close to the guardrail wall. You must know that this is a street race, and it is in Singapore, where every inch of land is expensive. There are no roads around the road. For a buffer zone as large as a normal track, basically the edge of the track is next to the wall. On other tracks, if you accidentally go off the track, you will enter the buffer zone at most. Although you lose some time, you can still drive the car back, but in Singapore, going off the track means hitting the wall.

Hamilton's high-risk running method also brought him high enough rewards. No one dared to run as boldly as him, and he also successfully won the first place in qualifying and will start from pole position.

The second is Zhang Guan, the third is Vettel, the fourth is Williams' Rosberg, and the fifth is Red Bull's Webber. Barrichello crashed in qualifying , fortunately, he has already run a basic result and ranked sixth, but he has to start ten places behind to replace the racing parts.

In the next day's main race, Hamilton successfully defended the first place at the start, while Zhang Guan encountered Vettel's attack at the beginning of the race. The cars on the right side of the track have stronger grip, so drivers starting from the right side will have an advantage. Vettel took advantage of this advantage and wanted to surpass Zhang Guan at the start.

Zhang Guan's successful defense prevented Vettel from succeeding. Although Hamilton, who was running at the front, had been running according to his own rhythm, he couldn't get rid of Zhang Guan who was behind.

This is the Singapore Grand Prix. There are 23 corners in one lap. You have to brake to prepare for cornering before you accelerate. It is indeed very difficult to get rid of your opponent. Lap laps on this track are more difficult than other tracks. Much later.

Similarly, it is not easy to overtake on the Singapore track. The corners are too narrow, and defenders can easily defend their own routes. The distance from Turn 21 to the end of the straight may be the only opportunity for overtaking on the entire track. place.

Zhang Guan also knows this very well, and with Hamilton's character, perhaps he would rather fight for a win-win situation and both retire, and will forcefully hold his own position, so Zhang Guan is not eager to overtake, but is constantly doing like Hamilton. Especially when approaching Turn 21, he tried his best to approach Hamilton, giving Hamilton the illusion that he wanted to overtake.

Of course, Hamilton would not give Zhang Guan a chance to overtake. In order to stop Zhang Guan, his route selection in each lap was very limited, and this was also the result Zhang Guan wanted. Hamilton's running method is actually a running method with a very low error tolerance rate, and he cannot make a single mistake.

People are not machines, of course there will be mistakes, Zhang Guan is waiting for Hamilton to make mistakes.

Hamilton was under tremendous pressure, but he was very lucky. On the 21st lap, an accident on the track caused the safety car to be dispatched. The drivers took advantage of this opportunity to pit and change tires. Hamilton also took this opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief.

Four laps later, the safety car returned and the race restarted, Zhang Guan continued to put pressure on Hamilton. After the thirtieth lap, Zhang Guan kept the gap between the two within 1 second. Such a short gap almost caused the car in front to stick to the car behind in some corners.

Hamilton's defensive actions are getting bigger and bigger, and his tires are also getting more and more worn because of his overly aggressive defense. In the race, the more worn the tires, the worse the grip and the more difficult the car is to control .

On the 33rd lap, the team had given Hamilton instructions to protect his tires, but Hamilton's character is obviously not a person who will seriously follow the team's instructions. He has a history of violating instructions many times, so he naturally sent the team Instructions to him to protect the tire fell on deaf ears.

On the 35th lap, Hamilton paid the price for his willfulness. In a corner, he made a mistake. Seeing that Zhang Guan was about to pass, Hamilton immediately wanted to correct it, but his overwhelmed tires But he couldn't let the racing car complete the technical movements he needed.

Hamilton did not control his own line. His car had a close contact with the protective wall. The front nose and tires of the car directly touched the protective wall. The sparks after the friction were scattered around in the night sky. When Hamilton controlled the direction of the car In the end, the price he paid was a front wing, a tire and first place.

Hamilton did not give up, he still persisted on the track, he hoped to run back to the maintenance area to replace parts and then come back again, but the champion in Singapore has nothing to do with him.

Zhang Guan completed his second pit stop, and a new set of supersoft tires was enough for him to run until the end of the race.

...

In the Singapore Grand Prix, Zhang Guan finally won the championship. The Japanese Grand Prix that followed was a back-to-back race. The team flew to Japan non-stop on Monday.

For Zhang Guan, the Japanese station will have a special meaning, the FIA ​​will present the annual championship trophy to Zhang Guan here.

In the past, the awards ceremony was held in Europe, and the time was also at the end of the season. However, this year, for the first time, a driver championship from Asia was born, and even the team championship has nothing to do with Europe. The FIA ​​is very interested in presenting the awards The ceremony was brought forward and arranged in Asia.

The reason why Japan was chosen this year is because it is relatively close to China, and Chinese car fans can come to the scene to witness this historic moment in person. Of course, Singapore is not far away, but Singapore is a night game, and it is already late at night after the game. The time is not conducive to the viewing habits of Chinese audiences. However, there is only an hour's time difference between Japan and China. After the Japanese Grand Prix, it happened to be dinner time for the Chinese audience, and it was the weekend, so the ratings were guaranteed.

It was the golden week of November, and many Chinese car fans flooded into the auditorium. Some travel agencies even launched a special "racing tour", and tickets were already hard to come by.

Japan is the only country in Asia with a racing history. One is that the Japanese auto industry is very strong, with Toyota and Honda holding two world-class car manufacturers; the other is that Japan's economy is developed, so it started motor sports earlier. The only formula car race in Asia also takes place in Japan.

The Japanese Grand Prix used to be held at Fuji Speedway, which was owned by Toyota and was later replaced by Suzuka Circuit due to unsafe conditions. The owner of Suzuka Circuit is Honda.

However, this year's Japanese Grand Prix has an indescribable taste for Honda. Zhang Guan will be crowned here, and China Power will also win the team championship trophy here, but this Chinese power that won the double championship is precisely the burden thrown by Honda.

It is really ironic for Honda that his own bad assets become a double champion in the hands of others, and he has to be crowned on his own territory.

And Zhang Guan also seemed to deliberately trouble Honda. He won the Japanese Grand Prix. Since the Belgian Grand Prix, Zhang Guan has created another four consecutive championships.

The award ceremony seemed to be Zhang Guan's one-man show. First, as the champion of the Japanese Grand Prix, he opened champagne to celebrate, and then he had to participate in another award ceremony to hold the trophy symbolizing the annual championship.

On October 19, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Barrichello, who played at home, won the first place in qualifying, and his good condition continued into the race, but in the second half of the race, Barrichello took the initiative The position was given to Zhang Guan, and Zhang Guan successfully climbed to the top.

Barrichello is a Brazilian. He is willing to make such a big sacrifice at home, which obviously has a purpose. After winning the Brazil Grand Prix, Zhang Guan has won 13 race championships this season, tying the record created by Schumacher in 2004. And there is still the last stop in the F1 race, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. If Zhang Guan can win the championship, he will surpass Schumacher and complete the record of 14 wins in the season!