A U R O R A // F1

Race Day Azerbaijan GP. May 17th, 2020

I was running late. I overslept. My toothbrush between my teeth, I threw on some jeans and a shirt, spat out the rest of the toothpaste and rushed to get everything sorted.

Two minutes later I almost tripped over my own feet running to the elevator.

"Hold it, please!" I slipped inside and sighed loudly.

"Thank you.", I exclaimed in relief and moved my face up towards the person who held the door open for me. Max' eyes locked with mine, widening with surprise, I reckon my eyes did the same.

"Yeah, as I said, thanks.", I added, in a noticeably cooler tone, and stared forward.

He cleared his throat and under his breath I heard a "No problem.".

We involuntarily took the same route out of the hotel. I ran my hand through my open, messy hair, and with the other one waved for a cab. One immediately pulled over for me.

"Wanna share?"

Max appeared behind me. I took a second to think about it, as it would normally be the most logical thing to do.

"No.", I spat out, and without giving him a second look, I got into the car and slammed the door shut.

//

The buildup to the race was hectic, rhey were all pissed with me missing the team briefing, and I was glad when I could finally sink into my seat, my own little safe place.

I closed my eyes and scratched my neck while one of the mechanics fastened my seatbelt. Goddamn hair was everywhere. As I wasn't really able to do braids on my own, as Jenny usually did that for me, I decided to just leave it open underneath my balaclava, and now I hated it.

In the formation lap I tried to wipe every unnecessary thought out of my head. Carlos in his McLaren started next to me, in front of me was Seb in his Ferrari, and in the row behind me was Charles. All strong starters, so I had to make my first lap really stick.

One light. Two lights. Three. Four. Five. Lights out. I had a little wheelspin, but Carlos didn't get an exceptional start either. We ran side by side into turn 1, but I had the inside line and he locked up, so I passed him with ease.

The first stint on the soft tires was all about defending from Charles and Carlos behind who both had excellent pace. I had no chance to get into DRS range to Lando in front.

I pitted early - we decided to put me on the hard compound.

It put me behind Perez and Charles, but they were already struggling with their tires, and it took me only three laps to overtake them.

Lando pitted just one lap after I did. I had to be careful to preserve those tires, so I didn't find a way past him just yet.

*MATT* 11 laps to go. You are
doing a very good job.
Head down.

*ME* My tires are dying, I'm starting to struggle to hold the pace, guys

I didn't. I actually treated them very well, and although they now were 27 laps old, they still felt in surprisingly good shape.

But I saw Lando's rear slipping away from him in the castle section. I knew his were far worse off than mine. Maybe my radio was broadcasted, maybe the team tells Lando, and maybe Lando lets his guard down for a second.

And he did. With two laps to go, I snatched P6 from him.

*MATT* Attagirl! Amazing work!

*ME* Aaah, this one's really tasty - thank you so much guys and girls!