A U R O R A // F1

Race Day Australian GP. Mar 22nd, 2020

*MATT* Do you have any damage? Any damage?

*ME* No, I don't think so,
what the hell happened?

*MATT* Sainz and Hamilton crashed into turn 1, safety car now confirmed, currently P8, stay behind Ricciardo for the moment.

*ME* Where's Pierre? I don't
see him in my mirrors.

*MATT* Vettel overtook him back,
he's right behind you. Look out
for him at the restart.

*ME* Copy.

I tried to concentrate on keeping my tires on temperature by swerving around the track, focusing on the back of the Renault in front. The restart caught me sooner than I anticipated, but I saw my chance into turn three, when the battling Renault of Daniel and Charles' Ferrari went slightly wide, so out of turn 4, I was past both of them with ease, leaving Seb with both of them battling behind.

Not long after, I found myself behind Daniel again and defending from Charles pushing behind me. My tires were graining like crazy and I struggled to keep up the pace.

By lap 14, the front-runners began to pit. I found myself just in front of Verstappen, and it hurt me dearly to let him by, but keeping him behind me seemed almost impossible with the car and skills he had. I still managed to keep him behind for two laps.

*MATT* Let Verstappen by,
Suvi, let him by.

Deep down I knew it was the smart thing to do because both of us were getting more aggressive with each turn, and nobody wanted to risk something here, but it did ruin my mood.

My tires didn't last as long as I had hoped, and after my stop to mediums, I found myself in P9.

By lap 36, Matt let me know that Perez has gone off into Ascari. We took our chance by putting me on softs. It was worth it dropping back another place for the second pit stop - after a great restart for me, I found myself in P7 ahead of Lando's McLaren.

I felt my muscles tense up more and more, to the point it started to hurt. I pushed the pain into the back of my mind. Daniel was in front and I saw the chance to snatch P5.

The debris was there and gone again in just a blur.

*MATT* Yellow into Lakeside Drive, watch out, Magnussen
and Giovinazzi touched,
debris all over the track-

*ME* YEAH NO SHIT!!!
FIGURED IT OUT MYSELF!

My engineer took a second to reply to that.

*MATT* Your tires should be fine, pressure looking good, but you have significant front wing damage, how does the car feel?

*ME* IT FEELS SHIT!

*MATT* Oop, yeah,
we can see that now.

For a few hundred metres, I felt something rattling, but whatever got loose must've gotten ripped off completely on the straight.

I could always handle a car with a nervous rear end, even back in karting. Oversteering rarely meant me losing confidence or much pace, but understeering made me nervous.

Wanting to turn and the car not following the motions of the steering wheel, the front simply not gripping, made me anxious, I couldn't deny that.

*MATT* Vettel behind is three tenths faster than you, get back into Ricciardo's DRS if you can.