Drive to Survive [Lando Norris]

-20-

Getting out of the medical room, Willow was now walking around with a thin bandage around her hands. Luckily it looked like she was still able to drive tomorrow. But she would unfortunately start in P15 which was far from ideal. 

She walked back through the paddock and it looked like quali had ended since she saw a couple of drivers walking around, when they noticed her. 

"Willow hey, are you okay?" George Russell asked followed by Carlos Sainz, Antonio and Daniel Ricciardo. 

"Yeah it's fine" she said trying to cover her hands under her racing suit that she still hadn't taken off. 

"It looked pretty nasty, are you sure you're okay?" Daniel asked all of them looking at her. 

"It probably looked worse than it was, I'm just tired now" she said. 

"Yeah I understand" Daniel replied flashing a smile at her. 

The little group chatted for a few minutes before Willow left. Luckily she didn't have to give interviews today, so instead she went back to her driver's room tom get changed into some more comfortable clothes.

Her hands wasn't hurting that much anymore, and right now she was mostly just angry at herself for starting P15 tomorrow. She still had no idea what happened to the car, but a part of her were blaming herself a bit too much. 

Moments later she walked out of the motor home and made her way towards her car. At the corner of her eye she suddenly spotted something orange. She turned her head to see Lando walking a bit in front of her while talking on his phone. 

She wanted to say something to him. To go over and say just... something, but she didn't. Instead she continued to walk behind him all the way over to where her car was parked only a few cars away from Lando's car. 

She felt Lando's eyes on her, but she had to control herself and just get into her car and drive away. This was after all what she had claimed that she needed. Time away from him.

--

Race day. Willow's favorite day. Usually. Today, not so much. Well, she was still very much looking forward to the race, but giving her poor qualifying position, and her bandage on her hands, she had a clear disadvantage, and she really wanted to do everything in her power to impress Red Bull. 

But as she approached the AlphaTauri motorhome, she noticed a few people from Red Bull talking with Pierre. They noticed her and waved her over. She looked confused at Pierre, but made sure to seem as confident as possible. 

"Ah Willow, how are you today?" Christian Horner asked referring to her crash as he looked at her hands with the thin layer of white bandage on them. 

"Much better now. Thanks Christian" she replied with a smile. 

"I'm glad. Will you be racing?" he asked again. 

"Of course. Wouldn't wanna miss that" she replied with a little chuckle. 

"Well I look forward to see both of you on track today" Christian said looking at Willow and Pierre before leaving. 

"You sure, you're good to race today, Will?" Pierre asked as the Red Bull guys had left. 

"Yeah of course. I'm not giving up" She replied. 

"I know, you aren't. That's why I'm asking you because I don't wanna see you hurting" he replied. 

"Don't worry, I've got this" she replied and they went inside to get ready for the drivers parade. 

-- 

All the drivers were now standing inside a hallway as people prepared for the parade. Willow was standing with Pierre and Charles Leclerc chatting about random stuff. 

Suddenly, as Pierre and Charles were chatting about something, Willow slowly zoned out and her eyes landed on that same McLaren driver that made her feel so weird and empty right now. 

She finally realized that she was starring at him, when their eyes met and Lando looked at her as well for a few seconds. She hesitated before flashing a tiny smile hoping that he would give one in return, but when he rolled his eyes and turned his head again, it felt like someone knocked all the air out of her lungs. 

It may have been Willow who 'ended' whatever happened between them, but in reality... she was just shit scared. No one had ever treated her like Lando did. No one made her feel like Lando did. Made her laugh like Lando did. 

And when it all became too real, she panicked and ran away. What a fucking coward, she was, she thought. 

--

At least one good thing about right now was that she was back in her car and the lights were just about to go out. She kept a close eye to the red light, an when it disappeared she pressed the speeder as hard as possible and immediately pulled out to the right side to try and avoid too much turn 1 chaos. 

Luckily, she did escape, but only barely. She almost touched with another car, but it was forced to go wider and hit the grass slightly allowing Willow to overtake and gaining her first position. Only 4 more positions before she was back in the points. 

After the first few corners, the cars were a bit more spread out and Willow was now chasing the Aston Martin in front of her. She wanted to save her tires, but also closing the gap as much as possible. 

"Okay, Checo has just told us that turn 11 is a bit slippery by the straight, so watch it there" Mark said. 

She pressed the confirm button and made sure to be careful into turn 11

30 laps later and after a good pitstop, she came out P10 slowly climbing her way up. With fresher tires she began hunting down the next car. Lucky for her, she caught him with DRS and gained yet another position. 

"Keep it up, Willow. Great job" Mark said with encouragement. 

"Thanks, Mark. What's the gab to the next car?" she asked

"Gab to Lando 5.4, but his tires are wearing off. You should catch him soon" he replied. 

For a moment she wanted to just end the race now being happy with P9 and to avoid battling with Lando, but of course she couldn't do that. And instead she began closing the gab. 

A few laps later, and she was now right behind the bright papaya car. Of course Lando had noticed her, and he was getting in defense mode. 

She attacked him first but without success and was cutting the grass with her front wheel. But she rolled back onto the track and drove so close to his car that she was almost touching his car. 

She noticed him driving a bit from side to side, but she continued to follow him, before he finally made a little mistake and then she drove past him cutting him of into the next turn. 

"Great move, Willow" Mark cheered.