Because the soft tires’ lifespan far exceeded expectations, it wasn’t until Lap 40 that Wu Shi’s lap time dropped to 1 minute and 33.321 seconds, roughly matching Rosberg’s pace.
"BOX, BOX, BOX!"
Having squeezed out an extra five laps, this was an absolute steal!
Wu Shi drove into the pit lane. Claire pushed up her sunglasses, scanning the intensely focused pit crew before shifting her gaze to the incoming No. 59 Williams.
If anyone made a mistake during this tire change... Her gaze turned sharp.
CLACK-HISS!
The pneumatic wheel guns roared to life. The pit crew expertly removed the tires while another four members immediately mounted the new ones.
PFFT-CLACK!
With the tires secured, the car was dropped back to the ground.
VROOM-SCREECH!
Wu Shi slammed on the accelerator, pushing the car to the maximum speed limit as he charged out of the pit lane.
"The Williams Team is performing exceptionally well today! 2.81 seconds!" Brother Bing shouted excitedly.
"Let’s see. Now that Wu Shi is out of the pit lane, he’s 3 seconds ahead of Vettel and 14 seconds behind Rosberg.
"Rosberg’s current lap time is around 1 minute and 33.2 seconds, and there are 17 laps left," Brother Fei read out the data.
"What’s 14 divided by 17?" Brother Bing suddenly asked.
"Can’t you do the math?"
Brother Bing counted on his fingers for a moment, then chuckled as he took out his phone. "I’d better just use a calculator.
"0.82.
"He only needs to close the gap by less than a second per lap," Brother Bing noted, though he didn’t sound particularly thrilled.
If the gap only closed by one second per lap, Rosberg would win. Catching up was only the first step; Wu Shi still needed extra pace to actually overtake.
"Wu Shi’s average lap time on that set of softs was 1 minute 32.436 seconds, right? This set of medium tires only needs to run for 17 laps. I wonder what kind of lap time he can pull off with them."
The crowd watched in silence.
Lap 41. It was Wu Shi’s out-lap on the new tires. His lap time was 1 minute 33.211 seconds, nearly identical to Hamilton’s lap time on the new white tires.
Lap 42. Astonishingly, his lap time drastically improved to 1 minute 31.985 seconds!
In the Mercedes Pit Room, Toto frowned deeply.
Lap 43. Kimi pitted, but a problem occurred with his rear-left tire. Shortly after exiting the pit, his engine encountered an issue. Following team orders, he parked the car on the grass, triggering a brief yellow flag.
At this point, Wu Shi’s gap to Rosberg was only slightly over 12 seconds.
Lap 44. Perez overtook Button, entering the points zone.
Wu Shi was 11.001 seconds behind Rosberg.
Lap 45. Ericsson ran off the track and drove over the gravel trap. By the time he recovered, Sainz had already passed him.
Wu Shi was 9.985 seconds behind Rosberg.
Lap 49. The engine of Button’s McLaren Honda encountered problems, but he still attempted to finish the race.
Wu Shi was 8.456 seconds behind Rosberg.
Lap 50. Hamilton set a fastest lap record of 1 minute 30.945 seconds, improving upon the previous best set by Rosberg in 2014 by a second and a half.
Wu Shi was 6.75 seconds behind Rosberg.
Lap 51. As if in response to Hamilton’s pace, Wu Shi also set a fastest lap, pushing the record up to 1 minute 30.311 seconds.
In this single lap alone, he closed the gap to Rosberg by 2.8 seconds.
He was now a mere 3.95 seconds behind Rosberg.
Of course, tires weren’t meant to be pushed like that continuously, so on Lap 52, Wu Shi’s pace relaxed back to 1 minute 31 seconds.
Meanwhile, Rosberg’s medium tires had been running for a full 41 laps, and their degradation was still ongoing.
Lap 54. In the winding section after Turn 9, Wu Shi entered Rosberg’s one-second window.
Everyone in the Williams Pit Room stared intently at the screen.
"Here it comes! It’s finally happening!" Brother Bing yelled.
At the high-speed Turns 11 and 12, his medium tires—currently in their optimal performance window—granted Wu Shi immense maneuvering control. Hugging the right edge of the track, he found the perfect angle from the entry of Turn 11 to slice straight into the apex of Turn 12. During this maneuver, his speed remained over two hundred kilometers per hour, only dropping to cornering speed right as he navigated Turn 12.
This was a qualifying technique, yet Wu Shi was employing it directly in the main race.
When Rosberg saw the rapidly approaching Williams in his rearview mirror, he broke out in a cold sweat!
"There is a DRS zone after Turn 12! Since Wu Shi is less than a second behind Rosberg, he will get the right to open his DRS! Will he choose to attack here?
"DRS is open! The Williams’s astonishing straight-line speed is completely unleashed, and Wu Shi is rapidly closing in on Rosberg!
"But the distance doesn’t seem to be quite enough! He needs more space to close the gap before he can find an overtaking opportunity...
"Wu Shi is diving for the inside line! Rosberg changes lanes to defend the middle!
"Oh! No braking! That Williams is charging straight toward the apex of Turn 13! Wu Shi isn’t braking!
"What is he doing... OH MY GOD! His front tires are smoking, but he’s kept the car under control!"
The words fired from David’s mouth as rapidly as a machine gun.
Wu Shi’s extreme late braking didn’t secure the overtake. He was indeed still lagging behind Rosberg by a considerable margin. Rosberg had already turned into the apex, while Wu Shi only slowed down enough to turn after cutting clear across the apex.
He stared intently at the flashing red taillights of the Mercedes-Benz ahead of him.
He thought, "Hah, still harvesting energy?"
Wu Shi steered the Williams even closer to the inner edge, still preparing to cut into the apex of Turn 14 from the inside line. Seeing this, Rosberg again opted to defend the middle line. The way Wu Shi had come barreling in just now made him hallucinate visions of Verstappen from earlier.
Were these two rookies treating this like bumper cars?!
The anger in his heart continued to mount—not just because of Wu Shi’s aggression, but because of the flawed pit strategy and how wretchedly he was driving this race. It was hard to imagine the fierce criticism he would face when the race ended. Driving a Mercedes-Benz, yet losing to a rookie in a Williams...
Wu Shi wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him—he was indeed quite exhausted—but the Mercedes-Benz ahead seemed to be wobbling slightly. This only happened when a driver made sharp, minute steering corrections.
Was the condition of its tires already that terrible?!
Originally planning to wait until the final two laps to launch a real attack, Wu Shi changed his mind on the fly. Relying on an extreme late braking maneuver at Turn 14 once again, he practically wedged his front wing against Rosberg’s rear wheel.
VROOM-RUMBLE!
The two cars began accelerating one after the other on the straight. However, just a single stomp on the accelerator later, the VROOM-SCREECH of downshifting echoed out in rapid succession.
Rosberg cut into the corner from the middle line, while the trailing Wu Shi swung out wide, almost running parallel to the apex from the outside line before violently jerking his car into the turn. Obviously, Rosberg’s corner entry was faster, but because he took the middle line, his exit angle was compromised, leaving him unable to accelerate quickly.
Wu Shi’s corner entry was a car length slower, but once he navigated the turn, his car was perfectly aligned with the straight between Turns 15 and 16.
VROOM-HISS!
Wu Shi adjusted his engine output and the gearbox dial, rapidly ramping up the Williams’s acceleration.
Rosberg didn’t hesitate to yield space. His plan was to concede the position now and secure the DRS advantage after Turn 16. However, he noticed Wu Shi tailing closely behind him, showing absolutely no signs of overtaking.
Rosberg cursed the cunning bastard inwardly. Lacking the shameless audacity of Verstappen to hit the brakes right before the DRS detection point, he simply accelerated toward the straight.
"I need more engine power," he told the crew over the team radio.
"Mode Two," the crew replied.
WHOOSH WHOOSH!
The two cars blew past the DRS detection line, with Wu Shi trailing just enough to secure the detection point.
VROOM-ROAR!!!
Both Mercedes-Benz engines roared furiously. From a distance, the heat exhaust from their tailpipes visibly distorted the air.
"Can he make the pass this time?!" The two commentators from Six-Star Sports grew ecstatic. Whenever they got this excited, they would almost always ask questions with such hushed, breathless intensity.
The answer, of course, was yes.
Rosberg’s tires were simply too degraded—so far gone that even maxing out the engine power couldn’t increase his speed by much. Armed with DRS, Wu Shi breezed past him like a fast car lapping a backmarker, pulling out of the slipstream to overtake shortly after crossing the starting grid line.
Rosberg instantly moved to defend the inside line. Completely unbothered, Wu Shi aimed for the outside line, squeezing Rosberg as he cut into the apex of Turn 1. The race car, radiating immense heat, looked like a hurtling fireball on a collision course. Catching a glimpse of it in his peripheral vision, Rosberg hesitated for a split second before steering left.
Wu Shi controlled his vehicle with pinpoint precision. Leaving just enough space, he steered left into Turn 2. The disparity in their tires became even more glaring here. Even though Rosberg took a wider, gentler exit line, his rear wheels still slipped slightly.
"Yeah! He passed him!" In the broadcasting studio, Brother Bing jumped to his feet.
"A beautiful overtake! Wu Shi perfectly utilized the track space and his tire advantage to complete the pass on Rosberg! He is back in second place!" David commentated.
CLAP CLAP CLAP!!!
Applause erupted in the Williams Pit Room. Claire beamed with joy. Jonathan finally no longer needed to pinch his cheeks to hold back his grin; he burst into loud laughter.
Compared to the jubilation on the Williams Team’s side, the Mercedes Pit Room was much quieter. Everyone stared at the screen in silence. Toto stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his thoughts unreadable.
After flying past Rosberg, Wu Shi was back in clean air. By the time they cleared the next sequence of three corners, he had successfully pulled out a one-second lead.
The radio on Rosberg’s end was terrifyingly quiet. After a long while, he suddenly remarked, "This is all thanks to the team."
Peter immediately replied to Rosberg over the radio, "Nico, I know you’re upset, but you’ve done well enough."
Anyone with eyes could see that his own mistake early in the race was the event that set the tone for the entire race. Therefore, Rosberg blaming the team’s flawed strategy was undoubtedly a one-sided grievance. Thus, Peter had to gently remind his partner of that fact.
Lap 55. Ericsson overtook Sainz.
Lap 57. The race leader, Hamilton, had already lapped seventh-place Ricciardo.
On the final lap, Lewis Hamilton was the first to cross the finish line under the waving checkered flag, securing his 34th career victory.
Wu Shi crossed the line second. Jonathan’s celebratory voice immediately rang out in his headset. "Congratulations! You’ve secured your first F1 podium, our dear Australia Grand Prix runner-up!"
"Thank you! This is all thanks to the team." Wu Shi was in a great mood, though he defaulted to spewing standard PR platitudes.
Thunderous applause echoed throughout the circuit. Wu Shi didn’t wave back; as a rookie, he had no fan base in Australia. Glancing at the grandstands, the crowd was a sea of either red-hatted Iron Buddha Temple fans or black-hatted Trident Mercedes-Benz fans.