Verstappen's car nose was a quarter ahead of Qin Miao's car, then braked into T1, while Qin Miao braked late to make up that quarter gap, so they both almost entered T1 simultaneously. As they turned right, Qin Miao pressured Verstappen's racing line but didn't push Verstappen off-track, leaving more than 1.2 car widths of space.
However, if Verstappen takes this space, the angle into T2 won't be good, inevitably affecting speed.
So Verstappen didn't go into the corner parallel with Qin Miao at this turn. Instead, after Qin Miao's late brake, he took a cross line, achieving a faster corner exit speed than Qin Miao.
In T2 and T3, although Qin Miao was ahead, Verstappen with the Honda engine was visibly faster than Qin Miao.
The gap between the two cars was closing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Beautiful, Qin Miao held his position, but Verstappen taking the cross line got a significantly faster exit speed than Qin Miao, and next is the DRS zone."
