Against all odds

Chapter 6

"Alex! What's up?" I heard a British man behind me. When I turned around, I recognized George and Lando walking towards me.

"Hi guys. Long time no see. How are you?"

"Pretty good. How about you?" George questioned.

"A little nervous but nothing unusual. Wheres Albono?"

"Probably in back in the garage. I heard you came here on Friday does the car feel good?" Lando asked.

"Yeah, I think Ill get though the day without crashing. Maybe Ill even wave when I lap you." I smiled.

"Yeah, well see about that. I think you are too confident girl." George laughed.

"Anyways I got to go now. Well talk later, okay?" I smiled at the two.

"Bet. See you then!"

Walking away from the two boys I knew from my time in karting and formula 3, I noticed Mick was standing next to Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. The men were engaged in a deep conversation until Vettel noticed me looking around. He pointed in my direction and said something to the other two that caused Mick to nod and wave me over.

Following his request, I greeted them: "Hi guys. Nice to meet you two. I'm Alexandra Duman but you can call me Alex."

"I'm Daniel. Nice to meet you." the Australian said.

"Sebastian. Hi! I heard a lot about you in the last few days."

"Really? I hope it wasn't too much of the bad things?" I asked jokingly.

"No of course not." the German said.

"Yes, it was all of the bad things. We now know every little secret. Where are you from by the way? I can't pinpoint your accent."

"I'm from Austria," I answered the Australian.

"Really? I didn't know that!" Sebastian said.

"Born and raised there. I only just came here on Friday."

"Wow! you had a good quali! Did you practice a lot with the F1 cars?"

"I couldn't unfortunately but whenever I'm home I test drive every car available, so I think the constant adapting to new cars made it easier for me," I explained.

"That's cool. So, you're a Red Bull employee?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, kind of." I smiled.

We kept up a light chat until we had to take our places was the national anthem played.

After that I said goodbye wished them a good luck and went back to my car. Putting my earpieces in, pulling on my helmet after putting on my balaclava and zipping up my suit. I got ready to climb in my car all whilst ignoring the cameras that were pointed everywhere.

Once in the car I got nervous. My hands got sweaty inside my gloves and if I werent wearing them, Im sure you would see my knuckles turning white from me gripping the steering wheel as tightly as I could. I looked through my visor and started counting the cars ahead of me to try calming down but the massive amount of people running around on track made my heart speed up.

As a mechanic came up to me to strap me in, I tried to seem as confident as possible but as the men on track suddenly started to grab their stuff and leave, I forced myself to breathe deeply and pull myself together hoping that the formation lap would calm me down.

Luckily it did. The revving of the engine and the slight vibrations made my heart go back to its normal pace and my thoughts came to a halt as the first red light came on.

Two Lights. I readjusted my feet on the pedals.

Three Lights. I took a deep breath.

Four Lights. My Hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.

Five Lights. It seemed that the time stopped. I let out a long breath.

Lights Out. I stepped onto the throttle.

I tried to weave through the first few cars to gain places. Luckily, I got away better than a few cars in front of me and I managed to gain a position. Going full throttle on the remaining straight I braked as late as I could into Turn 1. Going into Turn two I went on the outside of an Aston Martin and an Alpine. Succeeding the overtake I caught the slipstream of a McLaren and overtook the driver in Turn 3. Unfortunately, I couldnt catch the second orange car until the next lap.

Overtaking wherever I got the opportunity I made my way up the field only slowing down under the yellow flag in sector one where I could see a Ferrari in the runoff area.

A few laps later I heard Simon on the radio: "Okay you are doing great. Box now please. Box, box."

"Copy" I answered and turned into the pitlane slowing down the car. Catching a slow pitstop caused by problems at the rear, I had lost a few more places than we hoped I would.

Fortunately, I got towed by Bottas who I overtook using DRS. A few corners later I caught sight of the Aston Martin who caused the yellow flag. "Simon. Is he okay?" I asked worriedly.

"He is moving." I got the quick answer from my race engineer which caused me to calm down and set my eyes onto the papaya car in front of me trying to overtake as soon as possible to get out of the dirty air.

After the restart I managed to catch the McLaren and pull away just to see the back of an Alpha Tauri which I didnt manage to overtake until three corners later. Promptly being faced with a bright red car ahead. I managed to get DRS and overtook the Ferrari going on the radio: Where are we right now?

"You are at P5 right now. Great driving Alex. Keep it up. Switching to Strat 2" Simon answered in a calm tone.

"Yes Sir. Does anyone fancy some chicken dinner tonight?" I joked.

"You keep focusing on driving and we can arrange dinner later." Simon laughed slightly.

"Boring. Lets get this over with, shall we? Whos next please?" I asked again.

"Next up is Vettel youll be able to see him after turn 19."

"Copy"

Overtaking Vettel in the second DRS zone I managed to overtake the second Alpha Tauri using the slipstream. Soon after the race got red flagged again.

"What happened?" I asked worriedly.

"Max is out but he is okay."

"Thanks" I answered.

Seeing at the restart that there was only Hamilton in front of me made my adrenaline run through my body. In my peripheral vision I saw his breaks smoking but I didnt let that distract me. Concentrating on the lights above us I waited patiently for the start signal prepared to fight the whole last lap.