No Love Greater

CHAPTER SEVEN

Toto, Lewis and the team had left for Turkey on Wednesday before the race while I was allowed to work from home. I was going to set up my personal laptop beside that given to me by Mercedes so I didn't need to multitask using one system.

I went about my daily work that day and received a call from Toto that they had arrived. He was going to call again after they had settled in and had lunch.

"Hello Selena, I hope you are not missing us already", he said cheerfully over the phone.

"Not really", I replied laughing.

"Lewis, Valtteri and Angela are here", he added, and they all tried to come into the camera view at the same time. It was very funny to watch. They all said hello but Angela remained beside Toto.

"As I earlier said, you will be online with me via video call. I want you to inform me immediately about anything you notice during the race okay", he said again and this time with a serious face.

"Or any suggestion different from what we come up with", he also stated.

'I will do that, you have my word", I told him.

'Fair enough, Lewis and Valtteri will equally call you up too and tell you their suggestions just like they have told other members of the data analyst department, to see if there can be any modifications or to stick with it", he said.

I nodded.

'Alright then, have a lovely evening baby of the team and take care", he said and everyone burst into a fit of laughter including myself.

"Yea Yea", I said playfully rolling my eyes.

From the moment I met Toto, he became like a father to me. He always wanted to know if I was okay and would constantly check up on me. We became closer when we talked about my family. After Paul and Carrie, Toto was the only one at Mercedes that knew my entire family history, how my mum passed when I was eight and that my dad never claimed me. He felt responsible for me. His wife Sofie also did the same. They were a great support system.

Lewis and Valtteri called me later at different times talking about their ideas of how to go about the race. I dropped some suggestions for them which the entire team will deliberate on before race day.

Friday was here and the first free practice would start that morning. All the teams had arrived and were getting ready. There were so many people moving around the paddock, both respective team staff, celebrities and people with paddock passes.

Mercedes decided to use their reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne after intense discussions with the performance engineer for the first two free practices in the morning and afternoon while the others watched from the pit wall. The mechanics needed the suspension and other little parts changed to be tested to see if the car would move faster.

The first session finished at 11:30am while the afternoon session finished at 3:30pm, both lasting for about three hours.

Everyone retired and went back to the team hotel to shower, eat and rest before the last practice session the next day. Lewis and Valtteri were both going to drive their cars during that practice session to get more familiar with the circuit.

They were back to the track the next day and practice three took place between 11am to 12pm.This made them tune up before the qualifiers started by 2pm in the afternoon.

The rain started but was not heavy and the Istanbul park was damp. All the cars struggled due to the weather but the Mercedes team tried their hardest which didn't yield any good results. Lance Stroll claimed his first pole while Lewis finished the race at sixth place. His teammate Valtteri finished at ninth.