However, defending against Verstappen would inevitably accelerate Qin Miao's tire wear, so the Mercedes strategy team had already begun calculating the possibility of Qin Miao using a two-stop strategy at this point.
Meanwhile, on the track, Verstappen took just a lap and a half to catch up to Qin Miao and, with the help of DRS, got another opportunity to attack Qin Miao on the long straight.
Lap 42, at this point, Verstappen had learned his lesson. In the five-lap tussle with Qin Miao, he already knew that Qin Miao was tough to deal with in close combat, so if he wanted to overtake Qin Miao, he had to do it like last time, relying on absolute speed to pass Qin Miao within the DRS.
To achieve everything in one move, Verstappen chose to squeeze out the remaining 40% of his car's battery power right after exiting T14.
