'He's been racing here before,' Leo thought. 'He knows this surface. He'll be fast in Sector 2 on cold tyres because he builds the temperature where it's needed first.'
He noted it. Filed it.
Nakamura had a weakness. He was consistent, but his Sector 1 ceiling was lower than the frontrunners. His qualifying pace lived in Sector 2 and Sector 3, where precision and tyre management paid dividends. In Sector 1, where raw commitment into Turn 1 and the high-speed exit of Turn 3 rewarded pure pace, he gave up two to three-tenths every time.
Leo's Sector 1 was where the gap lived.
---
The green light appeared above the pit lane exit.
Q2 began.
The fifteen cars spread across the circuit in a pattern that looked like chaos from above but followed the precise logic of tyre temperatures and timing windows. Three teams sent their drivers out immediately on push pace — Prema, DAMS, and Hitech. The rest opted for a longer out-lap to bring the rubber to full temperature.
