Drive to Survive [Lando Norris]

-3-

The next day the joy about qualifying had vanished for a moment for Willow. She had arrived at the paddock a bit earlier than usual because she liked walking around the paddock in the morning, but what she didn't expect was a storm of paparazzies waiting just outside the paddock, and the moment they saw her, they attacked her with a million of questions. 

"How do you expect the weekend to go?"

"Do you feel threatened by all the powerful men?"

"Are you dating someone?"

"Can you tell us anything about the car, how does it feel?"

"Is it intimidating to be the only woman on the grid?"

"Can we expect a podium this weekend?" 

She felt suffocated and tried to get away from them, but it almost looked impossible. Her breathing became pitched and her palms sweaty, and she felt herself panicking. 

"I'm sorry, I don't-"

"Hey, leave her alone please" she had no idea what just happened, but suddenly she felt someone grab her arm dragging her through the crowd and away from the paparazzies and into the paddock where the paparazzies wouldn't follow her. 

It wasn't until she walked round a corner that she could finally stop and catch her breathing and also look at the person who technically just saved her. 

"Thank you I- Lando?" Willow had finally gotten control over her breathing again, but she became very surprised at the sight of Lando standing in front of her with a worried look on his face. 

"Are you okay, Willow? You look a bit pale" he said studying her face like he was a doctor. 

"Yeah I- I'm fine" she finally spoke still surprised that Lando just saved her. 

Willow usually kept to herself unless it was Pierre, Lilly or Clara, and she wasn't really sure how to act right now. She usually didn't talk this much with other people. And she hated showing emotions to people she didn't usually speak with.

"Are you sure? Should I get you something or?" he asked again still with the worried look. 

"No, it's fine. Really" she replied finally getting the hang if it and placed a hand on his shoulder as it looked like he was about to go get her something. 

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that" he then said after a few seconds of silence. Willow had now placed her hands in her pockets again ready to just go. 

"Yeah well that's life I guess." she shrugged looking into his eyes. She'd never noticed that they were actually quite beautiful. 

Back in her F3 and F2 days she'd been racing with the likes of Lando, George Russel and even Pierre and Charles Leclerc, but she had always kept to herself. Mostly because the other drivers usually didn't like her very much. Getting beaten by a girl really hurt their egos. 

And so, she had never really spoken to them, even though she knew them. And then joining F1 last year and seeing some of her former fellow drivers now being her fellow drivers again didn't exactly make her want to talk to them. 

Her entire season last year she barely spoke to any of them besides Pierre, and it was a bit weird speaking to Lando now, but a part of her seemed to be wanting to talk a bit more with him. 

"No one deserves to get overrun by paparazzies" he responded with a light chuckle tilting his head slightly to the right.

"Of course not, but what's done is done" she said with a tiny smile. 

It looked like Lando wanted to say something else, but he had a hesitating look on his face. Willow couldn't help but trying to figure out what he wanted to say, but instead she felt like she just wanted to sit in her driver's room right now. 

"Well, I better go" she then said locking eyes with him. 

"Not even a thank you?" Lando said with a smirk making sure that Willow knew it was all good. 

"Hm" she began stepping closer to him looking him up and down, "Thanks" she finally said with an amused look on her face seeing how nervous Lando suddenly got. 

"Wait you actually said thanks?" He said blinking a few times. 

"Why wouldn't I?" she replied innocently. 

"Because I- well" he stopped not really knowing what else to say, and Willow couldn't help but laugh a little. 

"Anyway see you on track" she smiled and left still with an amused look on her face. 

-- 

After a successful FP3 ending in P6 for Willow and P5 for Pierre, it was time for qualifying. Both AlphaTauri drivers knew that qualifying was always much harder than free practice, and much more important. 

Which also meant that the tension in the garage was higher that before. It seemed like the team had managed to design a better car this year, an they wanted to show that. 

Willow was currently doing her warm ups with music blasting in her ears. She wanted to have 100% focus and shut everyone and everything else out of her head. It was important to fight for the big positions already now in the first race. 

"Okay, you're good to go" Lilly announced as the warm ups were over. 

Willow continued to listen to some music while making her way to the garage. She then finally turned of her music because she had to put her earplugs, balaclava, neck support and helmet on. 

She climbed into the car with ease and put on her gloves. Then her team boss Franz came over causing her to look up. 

"Alright Willow, give it everything you've got. This is your change, get a good first result. I know you can do that" he said patting her shoulder. 

"Will do, sir" she replied mentally preparing her for Q1. Q1 shouldn't be hard to get through, but you should never underestimate the other drivers and teams. You never know what might come. 

But Willow knew for sure that she was ready to fight.