At this moment, the Mercedes team staff felt both confident and somewhat anxious, because the data obtained on Friday showed that the intermediate tires were faster than full wet tires. However, the car setup back then was entirely different from now, so they weren't quite certain if the same scenario could be applied to today's cars.
Besides the Mercedes team, the Ferrari and Red Bull team staff were also feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety.
Naturally, they hoped for Qin Miao and Hamilton to make a wrong tire choice, with the intermediate tires finding no grip on the current wet conditions at Suzuka Circuit.
However, with the safety car pulling away, Verstappen began slowing down the pack and weaving side to side, warming up his tires, with all answers about to be revealed.
Ultimately, after passing the T16 and T17 straight sections, Verstappen started to accelerate.
