Lando's Love (2021)

Chapter 47

Abu Dhabi.

Last race of the season.

A battle for the championship tighter than ever.

2 title contenders.

369.5 points each.

Who will take the crown?

No, seriously. I was hoping Max would win: he had worked so hard this year and was the most consistent of all of us throughout the season. 21 races only 4 times outside the top 2: Baku, Silverstone, Budapest, Monza, so 3 DNFs out of the 4 times outside the podium. That's what I call a great season! I'm not saying Lewis doesn't deserve to win his championship but he made a lot of stupid mistakes and was less consistent. But both deserve their championship. We have to admit that all the other rankings were pretty much set by now so it was the battle for the championship that everyone was interested in, even the drivers.

Michael Masi made it clear at the start of the weekend that an accident caused by either Max or Lewis would take points away from them and the culprit would lose the championship straight away. Max is too keen to fight to cause an accident and Lewis, by causing an accident would inevitably lose the championship as Max has the most wins. So I wasn't betting on an accident between the two.

I was still concentrating on getting 5th place in the drivers' championship as 3rd place in the constructors' championship was already out of reach for us, unless we did a one-two and Ferrari didn't score any points, but that was unlikely with the championship fight between Max and Lewis.

When I saw Carlos and Isa arrive on Thursday, I approached them. Tris started to talk to Isa, which suited me. Carlos and I moved away from the two girls to talk without them hearing us. "So you're still planning to do it this weekend?" I asked. "Yes, after the race on Sunday, hopefully I'll get a good result..." he replied. We went back to the girls before going to the press conference. The question everyone was asking was: 'Who do we think will win the championship? I adopted a technique of adapting to the journalist who was asking me the question. We all had our opinions but we didn't need to antagonise journalists. So in front of Ziggo Sport I said Max, in front of Sky Sports I said Lewis.

The pressure was intense all weekend. On Saturday night, during qualifying, it was almost certain that Lewis would manage to start on pole for the race. Only he refused to play as a team and so refused the tow that Valtteri could offer him, unlike Max and Checo who allowed Max to go on pole in the end. The most surprising thing was my third place. But I couldn't fight at the start, I would lose directly to the two title contenders.

In fact, the only thing that happened during qualifying was when I ran over the plastic pole that Mick had destroyed just before me in the corner. This caused a red flag for 2 minutes, just to remove the pole that was still on the track.

When I got to the P3 sign I got out of the car and was happy: I was finally back! I got rid of my helmet and drank a little bit before going back to my family and my beloved. I gave my team hat to my mother and went to do my interview. I regularly looked at my family and saw that Tris had been placed in the middle of my parents and sisters. I was a little disappointed that my brother couldn't come with Savannah but little Mila was only a month old so I told them not to come and that we would go to Dubai together.

On Sunday morning I woke up and looked around for Tris, I saw her in the office studying for her exam the next day. I was glad to have her by my side for the last race of the season but it was true that she was not mentally present. I understood that she had to revise but I wished she had been more physically and mentally present with me. I stood up and hugged her while looking at her computer. I placed a kiss on her cheek before speaking, "Good morning, how did you sleep?" I asked. "I woke up earlier than you did this morning, the stress is starting to build up so I decided to study. In fact, I'm going to work with Carmen today. Except during the race, I'll be there to support you" she answered. I smiled, kissed her and went to take a shower. I got dressed and went back to the room. I saw how my dearest was dressed, she was, as usual, the most beautiful in my eyes: a little blue floral short suit with her white Reeboks, she had tied her hair in a half tail and let her natural waves fall down her back.