In the Six-Star Studio, Brother Fei shouted, "How can he drive like that!"
Verstappen’s two consecutive moves had left him somewhat unhinged.
Brother Bing quickly chimed in, "Isn’t it great that he’s racing like this?"
Brother Fei continued his rant, "Sure, the competition is fierce, and there are always plenty of little tricks in attacking and defending, but Verstappen is simply completely disregarding the rules!"
Brother Bing continued to share his thoughts. "With him blocking like that, Wu Shi’s gap just got bigger! So no matter how Verstappen drives, I think it’s a good thing.
"I unconditionally stand on the side that benefits Wu Shi."
After processing this, Brother Fei burst out laughing. "If you put it that way, then it’d be even better if Verstappen crashed Rosberg out of the race."
Brother Bing said, "It’s a pity that Hamilton probably won’t lap Verstappen either."
"What? You want Verstappen to take out both Mercedes-Benz cars together?"
The comedic duo joked around as they watched Wu Shi clock his fastest lap once again.
Compared to them, the official F1 commentators were much harsher. David fiercely criticized Verstappen’s maneuvers.
Mercedes-Benz had already sent someone to communicate with the race stewards. Meanwhile, Toto suppressed his anger, only to look up and see Wu Shi’s lap times. He couldn’t help but ask Peter, "Why were Nico’s previous lap times so slow?"
"The tire degradation was severe," Peter replied. After Tony was dismissed, he had transferred from Hamilton’s crew to Rosberg’s.
"What about Wu Shi?" Toto shot back.
"Wu Shi’s tire wear when attacking him was far less than his tire wear when attacking Wu Shi. Plus, he made a few mistakes while defending," Peter explained.
In the Williams Pit Room, Jonathan massaged his cheeks even harder. He was thinking of something happy, but couldn’t quite bring himself to laugh out loud.
Wearing sunglasses, Claire had no such reservations and beamed with joy.
To be fair, it really wasn’t easy for Wu Shi to have raced his way up alongside a guy who was like a ticking time bomb—ready to explode on contact.
Perhaps the strategies of the various teams had already been communicated, as the midfield drivers had further slowed their pace, dropping to around the 1-minute 34 or 35-second mark.
On lap fourteen, Rosberg finally got DRS, but a yellow flag suddenly appeared on the track. After rounding a corner, he saw scattered debris on the asphalt ahead.
Mercedes-Benz TR: "Perez and Button had a collision. There’s quite a bit of debris just ahead of you. Be careful."
However, the yellow flag was lifted after just three seconds. But three seconds after that, the yellow flag was waved again.
David commentated, "It seems debris from Perez’s car has been left on the track. It poses a certain hazard and needs Matthew to clean it up."
Jonathan immediately shouted into the TR, "BOX! BOX! BOX!"
Wu Shi happened to be right in front of the pit lane entrance. He was originally scheduled to pit on this lap anyway; Jonathan had just made the call a bit early.
Crossing the white line into the pit lane, he pressed the speed limiter button at just the right moment—otherwise, he would have gladly been rewarded with a 2,000-Europe fine. The car came to a steady halt, and the jacks lifted it up.
Wu Shi only felt two brief bursts from the wheel guns before the car was dropped back down to the ground.
2.987 seconds!
VROOM!
The car burned rubber as it launched, rushing toward the fast lane.
Jonathan TR: "You will encounter Ricciardo at the exit. Don’t let him hold you up."
"Copy."
"Wu Shi is exiting the pits, and Ricciardo is coming! How will their track positions turn out?!" The commentator’s loud voice focused everyone’s attention on the pit exit.
The camera pointed straight down the starting straight. In the distance, the Big Red Bull reflected the sunlight, gleaming brightly as its chassis gradually grew larger on the screen. Meanwhile, the Williams at the pit exit seemed remarkably slow. So, even with this head-on camera angle that completely lacked any sense of speed, it still felt like the Big Red Bull was approaching incredibly fast.
Having gathered more data, Jonathan said over the TR, "You’ll be behind him. The yellow flag hasn’t been lifted."
Hearing this, Wu Shi knew exactly where he stood. As he crossed the pit exit line, the pit lane speed limit was deactivated.
SCREECH!
Even cold soft tires were slippery!
By this time, Ricciardo had already reached Turn 1. He cut inside from the outside line, forcing Wu Shi to stay behind. Under the yellow flag, Wu Shi wasn’t allowed to overtake, so he didn’t make any aggressive moves and simply tucked in behind Ricciardo.
At this pace, the dirty air from the car ahead wasn’t so dirty anymore. His tire temperatures quickly rose. Although following closely would affect the engine’s cooling, he just needed to dial back the power a bit—let the engine suffer for now.
By the time the two cars made their way to Turn 6, the yellow flag was finally lifted. This wasn’t a good spot for an attack, so Wu Shi bided his time.
The camera then cut to Matthew, who had just run onto the track to pick up the debris. Holding a palm-sized chunk and a few smaller fragments, he was sprinting across the grass toward the safety of the barriers.
Approaching Turn 9, Ricciardo realized he had to defend, so he moved to the middle of the track to block. Wu Shi stayed on the outside line. Utilizing a later braking point, he perfectly tucked in behind Ricciardo’s tail to take the corner at a wide angle, creating a crisscross in their racing lines.
Ricciardo was puzzled. After this crossover, Wu Shi ended up on the right side of the track, but the upcoming long curve swept to the left. Didn’t that just hand the advantageous position back to him?
Then, halfway through the curve, he watched as that Williams closed in, pulled out, and overtook him!
Ricciardo TR: "What?"
This simple overtake was exactly like when Mercedes-Benz had effortlessly blown past Williams earlier.
As Turns 11 and 12 arrived, Ricciardo couldn’t seize the opportunity to tangle with him the way Wu Shi had. He managed to pick up DRS on the following straight, but Wu Shi aggressively blocked him at the entry to Turn 13. The guy left just enough of a gap on the inside line for exactly one car to squeeze through, and Ricciardo decided taking such a risk wasn’t worth it.
At almost the exact same time, Rosberg finally got past Verstappen.
After Wu Shi overtook Ricciardo, Sauber’s Nasr put up almost no resistance and let him straight through. Nasr didn’t want to needlessly increase his tire wear; there was zero benefit in holding up this Williams.
Having passed Nasr, Wu Shi was back in fifth place. The fourth-place driver, Vettel, was eleven seconds ahead of him. For the next eight laps, he was expected to have entirely clean air.
On lap sixteen, Kimi pitted, and Ferrari’s clown-like incompetence was on full display as his rear tire got stuck during the pit stop. Whether the spare wheel gun wasn’t ready or something else went wrong, the rear tire mechanic hurriedly leaned over to borrow a wheel gun from the front tire mechanic.
VZZT!
The tire came off.
Final pit stop time: 8 seconds!
On lap twenty-one, Massa pitted with a 3-second stop, only to get held up by Ricciardo right as he exited. On the same lap, Hulkenberg pitted.
At this point, Wu Shi had climbed to third place, while Rosberg was in fourth. The gap between the two was less than three seconds.
On lap twenty-three, Ricciardo—who had been blocking Massa for an entire lap—finally pitted. He had delayed Massa’s pace by a full four seconds.
Mercedes-Benz TR: "Nico, you need to pick up the pace. You two are getting closer."
Rosberg’s TR blared with distorted electronic static: "I KNOW!"
On lap twenty-four, Vettel pitted, yielding second place. Sainz pitted on the very same lap.
With Vettel out of the way, Wu Shi was finally free from any hold-ups and started to push with everything he had. Since he was on a three-stop strategy, he absolutely had to build up enough time to pull an entire pit window ahead of the two-stoppers!
The strategy team had long since devised this plan: they were going to run this set of tires into the ground! Fortunately, they had plenty of tires at the Australia Station. There was absolutely no shortage of fresh soft tires, giving him the confidence to keep pushing.
And so, the gap between the two drivers—which had been closing—gradually widened once again.
Mercedes-Benz TR: "He’s on soft tires; we’re on mediums."
Rosberg understood the team’s implication: Wu Shi was on a two-stop strategy, while they were on a one-stop. Today’s temperature was indeed lower than usual, vastly improving tire durability.
But still, was he supposed to run this set of mediums for forty-five laps?!