This time, Verstappen had an unusual start.
The virtual safety car was just cancelled, and Verstappen immediately began to accelerate.
This move was so sudden that Qin Miao didn't even react at first.
As a result, by the time Qin Miao also started to speed up, he had been left 1.7 seconds behind Verstappen ahead of him.
Perez and Hamilton behind him were also pulled over 1.5 seconds away.
On the 17th lap, DRS was enabled, and after it was activated, the gap between Perez and Hamilton, originally 0.9 seconds, shrunk to 0.4 seconds after a long straight.
Lap 18, at the same spot, Hamilton began to truly launch an attack.
Seeing Hamilton's terrifying closing rate, Perez decisively switched to the inside line for defense.
However, Hamilton was too fast, and like Qin Miao, despite being on the outside, his late braking led to a better speed and angle entering the corner compared to Perez.
Then everyone saw Hamilton overtake Perez from the outside, moving into third place.
