letters [max verstappen]

23

November 24, 2018 – Abu Dhabi, UAE

This was it. Race 1 of the last round of the season. George, Alex, Lando, and I were all vying for the championship, and next year we were likely all graduating to F1 together. It was a dream come true. I had secured a seat at Alfa Romeo and was already going to be the first woman to hold an F1 seat in the 21st century, but now I could become the first woman to win an F2 championship. I had a decent qualifying and was starting in P5 ahead of Jack and Lando. The race started, and I got the inside line on Markelov and Nicky and was now driving in P3. It evened out from there, until lap 16. I passed Nyck for P2 at the chicane, faking him out on the outside of the first turn before sweeping past him on the inside of the second.

"That's masterful B, let's keep him behind on the straight." My engineer Bram told me. I saw Nyck close behind in my mirrors, but stuck to my line.

We were full throttle down to turn 11, and in my mirrors, I saw him flick right like he was going to take me on the outside in the turn. All of a sudden, before I'd even reached my braking point, I was hurtling straight towards the barrier. One big hit, excruciating pain, a second hit? Then it all went black.

Oh, folks, we've got quite a battle here between Nyck de Vries and Becca Sommer! Sommer is ahead and is on the racing line as they head full speed down to turn 11! De Vries looks like he's going to race her side by side! Oh! Nyck de Vries locks up and makes contact with Sommer! She's hit the wall on one side and ricocheted into the other! This is a bad one. They were going just shy of 200 mph. Sommer is off after hitting one barrier directly and spinning into the other one. De Vries has spun as well but he is out of the car, he's run over to check on Sommer who is still in the car. She's not moving. Red flags, red flags.

Charles POV

I furrowed my brow as a commotion spread in the press room. We were in the middle of the post-qualifying press conference, people shouldn't be moving around and conversing. Nico stopped answering the question when he also noticed the commotion. "What's going on?" He asked openly.

"Accident" I made out of the commotion, and my heart skipped a beat. From the reactions in the room, it had to be a big one. Not again. I couldn't help but think. Pierre put a hand on my back, he knew exactly what I was thinking about.

"It's Sommer. She hit the wall twice, she's unresponsive." Someone called out after a few minutes. My heart started beating a million miles an hour, and I looked at Pierre now, whose face was pale white with shock. On the opposite end of the table, Daniel had his hand on Max's shoulder and was trying to comfort him, but Max looked like he had completely shut down, staring straight ahead, unblinking as his face turned sheet white.

"Charles, I can't be here." Pierre managed to choke out, and I helped him up.

"We have to go." I announced, and we stumbled out of the press room. Our PRs chased after us, and I don't know what happened but we were soon slumped on the floor of the Toro Rosso garage. Pierre's engineers hadn't done anything to stop me from coming in, and we sat next to each other on the floor in silence, fearful of what kind of news we could receive. At some point, Giada and Cate, who had been trying to get information, came and knelt in front of us.

"Hey, good news. She's alive. She's being airlifted to the hospital." Giada said softly.

"Jules was alive too." I whispered. My eyes were shiny with tears forming at the thought of losing another friend. Pierre was silent, but I saw him wiping away tears as Cate comforted him.

"Hey, don't think like that." Giada scolded as she pulled me close. "They have to restart the F2 race, but everything is canceled for F1 tonight. We can go to the hospital and get the news there." She suggested, and I nodded.