"Is the Chinese kid still racing?"
Looking at Chen Xiangbei speeding on the track, McLaren boss Dennis sounded quite surprised.
They had confirmed through tail speed monitoring that the engine output power of Chen Xiangbei's No. 13 car was low, 3 to 5 kilometers slower compared to Perez's car in the same team.
It's not just an occasional low-speed lap data, but from practice to qualifying, the top speed of each lap was slower than Perez's, indicating a problem with the power unit.
Malfunction during the second practice also provided evidence for this suspicion.
Based on calculations by McLaren engineers and comparisons with Perez's lap times, the Q3 result of 1 minute 36.311 seconds was likely the limit of Chen Xiangbei's current car.
Yet the HRT Team was not satisfied, intending to let Chen Xiangbei push for another flying lap; are they not considering the consequences?
"Xiangbei doesn't want to give up the top pole position, this guy is determined."
