End of the Century Talented Racer

Chapter 224 Competitors

The weather forecast before the game once indicated that the first free practice would be hit by rain, but the rain did not fall during the 1 minutes of FP90, and the track remained cloudy.

第一节练习开始后，仅有特斯洛克一人在前10分钟驶上赛道做出圈速。其余车手都在FP1进行至15分钟左右才开始本节测试。数支车队透露FP1前所设定的计划就是在练习进行至20分钟时才开始测试项目。

The drivers did not try to sprint in the first 40 minutes.Stewart topped the list with a time of 1:05.525 on supersoft tires.Vergil ranked second behind 0.046 seconds.But the Leysin driver was only on the softest compound of the weekend.Seaver and Tesrock ranked third and fourth respectively.The two Dongsheng drivers tested the ultrasoft tire and ranked fifth and sixth respectively.

特斯洛克在FP1进行至30分钟时在4号弯打转。好在莱森车手仅引出赛段黄旗，荷兰人能够继续自己的练习。德拉克罗的前翼在FP1临近40分钟时在路肩上断裂，让雪铁车手损失了不少时间。

随后的30分钟里，多位车手换上极软胎尝试做出冲刺圈。本周末迎来冰城空气动力学升级的斯图尔特与西维尔成为仅有两位进入1分05秒大关的车手。两人分别做出1分04.839和1分04.966继续占据前二。

Tesrock and Daniel ranked third and fourth behind 0.233 and 0.341 seconds respectively.Vergil became the only driver in the three major teams who did not switch to ultrasoft tires.

In the last 20 minutes, only one driver, Virgil, improved his performance.The Australian who put on the extremely soft tire made 1 minute 05.483 and narrowed the gap from Stewart to 0.644 seconds.

The fluctuating performance of the Citroen team this season, especially the sluggish performance in France last weekend, was ridiculed by the Lijiao Racing Team, Porter Racing Team and Yinhua Racing Team.

Citroen is currently still ranked fifth in the constructors' standings, behind Lijiao and ahead of strong teams Porter and Yinhua, but its direct competitors did not expect the team to be so difficult.

Former Citroen driver Wesley, who has two No.6 finishes this season, said he was "proud" of Porter's results.

"When I was at Citroen, it was obvious that this was a great team, and it's a disgrace for them to perform like this," Wesley said. They compete, beat them sometimes, but that's not where they belong."

Alex of Pride Racing admitted he was a bit surprised by Citroen's ups and downs. "In qualifying they weren't as strong as they were on Sunday," Alex said. "Actually, I thought they would be stronger in France on Sunday, but that's not the case."

And Alex's team-mate Baxter said: "I think in F1 you never know when you're going to have a little problem, it's weird, but it happens every so often.

Asked if he was surprised by Citroen, Yinhua's Gu Gaoyuan said: "We wanted to compete with them, but that's not the case, they did badly in France. But you can't underestimate Citroen, I believe they will back."

Alfredo of the Kleinese-Leysin team hopes that his performance in Austria this week will prove his strength. "Obviously it's important for us this weekend that we respond to the performance of the new upgrade to make sure it's as good as we expected," Alfredo said. Small upgrades have been made, which should be pretty good and a big step forward, so we should have the strongest car so far this season."

Alfredo's team-mate Catildan believes the reasons for Leysin II's recent struggles are "complicated". "The poor performance was caused by a lot of different factors, some of which we are very aware of, and which will improve us this weekend with our aerodynamic updates," added Catildan.

Coming to the Austrian Grand Prix, the driver transfer market continues to heat up, with a lot of focus on Virgil and Santak at the center of the rumors.Especially in the past week, there has been a lot of rumors about Santak's future.Many answers seem to be hidden in the completely different answering styles of the two.

In addition, the addition of the third section of the DRS zone on the track and the championship competition this season also aroused the "voice" of many drivers.

Vergil is an important "fuse" in the driver transfer market this season.The Leysin driver, who is looking to challenge for the world championship in the next few years, is eager to play for a championship-caliber team. After winning two races this season, the Australian driver's decision will open up the driver market this season.Previously, the Leysin Racing Team confirmed that many teams including Dongsheng and Citroen are eager to join Vergil, and Vergil also said that he will announce his future direction soon.

"I hope to resolve the issue of the contract soon and hope to be able to make a decision before the start of the summer break. Leysen has made some announcements, so the future direction of the team is clear. I hope that I can announce my plan to everyone as soon as possible. future."

Although Vergil failed to give any hints, the Leysin team has already revealed in advance that the Australian is close to renewing his contract.Leysen racing consultant revealed: "The negotiations are not over yet, but we will announce soon, not far away."

At the same time, Santak, whose contract with Dongsheng is about to expire at the end of this season, is also facing the possibility of leaving the team.Due to the excellent performance of Dongsheng youth driver Kendrick this season, the Monaco rookie even broke into Q3 in the French Grand Prix a week ago.In the past week, a large number of media broke the news that Kendrick will replace Santak, and there are even rumors that Santak's old club, Citroen, has offered a contract to Santak.

Talking about his future, Santak, who signed with Dongsheng "once a year" in recent years, continued the typical "Sang style" answer as usual. "My future is the same as it has been for the past few years, and we'll find out then."

But when it comes to his room for improvement over the race weekend, Sontak said he hopes to improve in qualifying.

After eight races, Stewart and Daniel are the top two in the drivers standings.Although Vergil ranked third with an excellent performance, the Leysin driver has already fallen behind by a lot of points.Therefore, from the point of view of points, this season's championship competition will continue the script of the previous season.

When asked if there is still hope to compete for the championship, Tesrock believes that the championship matchup has nothing to do with other drivers, and Stewart and Daniel are the only two remaining in the championship battle. "

(End of this chapter)