Lando's Love (2021)

Chapter 33

On Friday morning, I was sitting on the sofa in my driver's room with Astrid as usual. The free practice session was due to start in a few hours, but I was already ready. We were discussing everything and anything while waiting for the call to get into the car. We heard Astrid's phone ringing. I liked its ringing very much: a piano melody. She got up to fetch her phone which was lying on the table. She looked at the name before answering.

"Hi Marion, how are you? ...... I'm fine, I'm fine. ......... No, I'm in Baku with Lan. ........ What are you talking about? What points? ......... Did they put them online?!? ........ Wait till I see."

I saw her hurry to the computer I had available to look at the reports the engineers were sending me. I couldn't see the screen, so I didn't know what it was about. Jon came in at that moment to warn me that I had to go to the garage. "What's wrong with her?" he asked me, looking at Astrid with a big smile. "I don't know, her friend called her to tell her that something had been published but I don't know what it is" I answered. "Okay bye, see you soon, kisses" we heard Astrid say before she hung up. We watched her for a long time hoping that she would tell us what it was about. But she didn't. She took a picture of the computer screen before going out with us towards the garage.

As we walked, I decided to ask her about it. "So why did Marion call you? She looked up from her phone and handed it to me with a big smile. I took it and stopped in the middle of the paddock to look. I understood her big smile. All it took was one word, written in bold: ADMIT. She had passed her first year!

"OMG! YOU PASSED! YOU'RE GOING ON TO THE SECOND YEAR! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" I shouted. Before she jumped into my arms, crying but still with her big, beautiful smile. "I did it, I got into the second year. I couldn't believe it," she said. I was so happy for her. I can't imagine how hard she had to work to get there. I am proud of her. Many people had seen and heard what happened, including the other drivers who were also heading to their garages. Jon hugged her back and congratulated her before the other drivers arrived. She spoke to all of them, especially George, Carlos, Charles, and Pierre. Everyone was happy for her. We then headed to my garage for the day's free practice, which went slowly: no amazing results but the programmes we had to do were done.

Saturday meant qualifying. In Baku, it was necessary to qualify but overtaking was possible during the race, especially thanks to the 2 km long straight line. The start of my qualifying went well. After a first red flag in Q1, we started with a flying lap. I was coming to the end of my lap, passing under one of the race indications screens when it lit up: I saw a red colour, but I didn't know what it was. I asked Will for the information, and he took a while to answer me, so I ended up not coming back to the pits under red flag conditions... I was risking a penalty, I knew it. So, I put everything I had into qualifying. However, I was not told if I was under investigation or not for not coming in under red flag. I only found out after qualifying when I finished P6. I was annoyed that they didn't tell me before. So, I went back to my driver's room pissed off. I heard the knocking but didn't want to see anyone. "Get out! I don't want to see anyone!" I shouted. When I felt the air rush into the room, I knew who it was. There were only two people stubborn enough not to listen to me. One of them had to be busy so I knew who had just entered. She sat down next to me and hit me on the shoulder.

"Why are you hitting me?"

"You're a real dickhead when you put your mind to it!"

"But what?"

"You're pissed off at Will and Jon because they didn't tell you but think about it. What happened the last time you were under investigation for qualifications, and they told you?"

"I did some shit."

"THANK YOU! Now, you're going to get out of this room, you're going to go to them, you're going to apologise and then you're going to go up with them to the race stewards to explain what happened and make sure you don't get too big a penalty."