Almighty Athlete Chapter 256: Heavy rain is coming

All five red lights are off and the Malaysian Grand Prix officially begins.

There were no mistakes in the Zhang Guan departure. He successfully defended his first position and entered Turn 1.

Malaysia’s turn 1 is a hairpin turn. It is difficult to overtake at turn 1 as long as the route is taken. But immediately after turn 1, it was turn 2. Turn 2 is a reverse turn, which is a good overtaking point on this track. If the route becomes larger when turning out of turn 1, it is easy to be overtaken by the opponents who occupy favorable terrain in turn 2. The short straight after turn 2 will allow the transcendental to stabilize his advantage.

Rosberg, the fourth in the back, started very well. He surpassed two Toyotas and came to Zhang Guan. He wanted to grab the inside of turn 2 and surpassed Zhang Guan, but the exit speed of Zhang Guan was faster than Rose. Borg is faster. Even if Rosberg grabbed the line, but lost the speed of the corner, Zhang Guan took the lead to run out of the second corner, and used the short straight ahead to secure his first place.

In the back of the car, Barrichello, Raikkonen and Alonso started very well. They all overtake to varying degrees, but the third Toyota team, Glock, started poorly. Squeezed to the sixth position.

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

Some parts of the track are dry and some are slightly slippery, which is the last thing drivers want to encounter. Old drivers know that heavy rain is not terrible. The most terrible thing is that when the kind of light rain started, the road was semi-dry, and the drive was particularly easy to skid. Now it is the same on the track.

There is no shortage of bad luck in Formula One cars. Today’s first bad luck was born on the first lap. McLaren’s Kovalainen suffered a side slip on a slippery corner and rushed straight up. As a result, he became the first driver to retire. And they retired for two consecutive races, which is a rainy season for McLaren who is troubled.

As the race progressed slowly, the distance between the cars also opened, and the advantages brought by the double diffuser gradually manifested. Zhang Guan steadily occupied the first place, and the gap with the second place The bigger, and Barrichello also surpassed the connection of world champion Alonso and came to the fourth position.

On the 14th lap, Red Bull Racing Vettel led the advanced station, which opened the prelude to the drivers' first pit stop. Then Rosberg, who was second, also chose to pit and refuel, followed by two Toyota drivers.

As for Zhang Guan, the amount of fuel added is more, and the degree of tire wear is expected to be much lighter before the game, so the Zhang Guan is able to support a few laps. He began to take advantage of the lighter oil and took the fastest order. ring.

The high-temperature Sepang track has always worn tires, but the rain this morning made the track temperature only 36 degrees Celsius, which made the tire granules much less. Even soft tires can be better than usual. Stick to three or four laps.

The dark clouds in the sky are getting thicker and thicker. The fans in the open-air auditorium have already pulled out their umbrellas and are ready to deal with heavy rain. The narrator kept talking about the rain, but there was no drop of rain so far.

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

"I think it should be fast, you look at the sky, it looks like this, there will be ghosts if it doesn't rain!"

"Look, look, Ferrari's Raikkonen is coming in. He changed the rain tires!"

On the eighteenth lap, Ferrari driver Räikkönen pitted into the station, and he put on a set of all-rain tires.

"It's not raining yet, why did Ferrari change to a rain tire?"

"Did Ferrari already know that the heavy rain is coming soon?"

"Perhaps Ferrari is simply betting that they are changing to a full-rain tire instead of a half-rain tire, which is obviously betting on the coming of a heavy rain!"

The only difference between a full rain tire and a half rain tire is the grain on the tire. There are more lines on the full rain tire, the tire drainage ability is stronger, and the car is less likely to slip. Of course, the friction is increased and the downforce is reduced, which will seriously affect the speed of the car.

Under normal circumstances, there is water on the track or there is not much rain. The driver will choose a semi-rain tire. Only when the road surface is very exposed and the rain is very heavy, the driver will choose the full rain tire. Nowadays Ferrari chooses a full rain tire, obviously it is like telling everyone that there will be a heavy rain.

Ferrari changed to a full-rain tire, which also surprised many teams, especially the teams that just entered the station and changed their tires. It’s important to know that this year’s Formula 1 dry land tires are all bald tires, that is, tires with no grain on the surface. With this tire, it is possible to run a little bit of rain with a little rain, but if it rains heavily, The bald tires must be slippery, and they will have to enter the station again to change to the rain tires, which is equivalent to entering the station one more time, wasting more time.

Ross Brown picked up the intercom: "Zhang Guan, you have a very good pit stop window on the next lap. But what I want to tell you is that Ferrari changed to a full rain tire when he just pitted! "

"It's not raining yet, why is Ferrari eager to change the rain tire?" Zhang Guan asked.

"Ferrari is different from other teams. They rented meteorological satellites~IndoMTL.com~ and hired special climate analysts. They should predict that it will rain soon! If it rains, they can use the time someone else comes to the station to change the rain tires and go ahead." Ross Brown said.

"But it has not rained yet. The rain tire will lose a lot of speed." Zhang Guan said.

"It is true that the road surface is still very dry. Compared with the soft tire, a lap is more than one second apart. If there is no rain within four to five laps, Ferrari will lose its strategy." Ross Brown Said.

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

"My suggestion is that you insist on two more laps." Rose Brown continued: "You can slow down the car properly and protect the tires. We have already checked the latest weather forecast.

Ross-Brown's voice just fell. A drop of water suddenly appeared at the position of the Zhang Guan helmet's eyepiece. This water drop quickly disappeared on the goggles with the speed of the car.

"I probably don't have to stick to two laps." Zhang Guan continued: "It's raining now!" (Unfinished.)