Wu Shi was the first out of the pit lane; ahead of him were only the two Mercedes-Benz cars.
It seemed these two rivals were ready for a life-and-death struggle right from the get-go.
Wu Shi immersed his body and mind into the car. The soft tires provided significantly more grip than the medium ones. For the Williams car, this meant a larger margin of error when cornering.
His heartbeat gradually accelerated; he wanted to set a time fast enough to enter Q3 with just a single flying lap.
According to the tire regulations, the top ten drivers in qualifying—those who made it to Q3—had to start the race on the exact set of tires they used to set their fastest lap in Q2.
In other words, if he advanced to Q3, this set of tires would be his starting tires for the race, meaning the fresher they were, the better.
