lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

26.

October 2014

It was Sunday, October 5th, with two hours to go before the start of the Grand Prix. Pia could feel that something was off today, but she tried to convince herself that she felt like that because of the argument she had with Sebastian yesterday.

"Have you talked to Seb?" Jules asked Pia while he was signing caps. They were sitting in the Marussia garage, having a chinwag.

"Not yet, but I have to. You know that I hate it when we argue, and then he starts Grand Prix. Then I'm torturing myself for the rest of the race because I'd hate myself if something happened to him, and we wouldn't be on good terms." Pia openly confessed. She was worried about him even after she found out that he had a secret relationship with Gianna. She was so mad at him, but she still loved him.

"That's a good thought. Maybe I should start telling everyone that I love them before every race. So, Pia, my sweet little innocent Italian," he grabbed her cheeks. "Well, maybe not so innocent, knowing Charles," he whispered for himself, but then he continued with his speech. "I love you. Take care of yourself, Charles and Daniel," he said and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Jules, I love you too, but you don't have to be this overdramatic. Furthermore, I do take care of them anyway and trust me, one day it will make me go crazy," Pia rolled her eyes.

"I think I'll go," Pia laughed when Jules hugged her tightly. She wanted to go, but he still held her. He mumbled something into her shoulder, but she didn't understand it, and then he let her go.

"Yeah, fix things with Seb," the Frenchman quickly reacted. He wanted her to make the right decision and admit that perhaps this time, she was wrong.

"You should fix things with Daniel," she just winked at Jules before leaving the Marussia garage.

---

"On your way to meet Jules, huh?" Pia asked Daniel when she was passing him. "He's in a rather playful mood today," she announced to the Frenchman's lover. They were standing in the middle of a paddock with umbrellas above their head. Thanks to the sound of the raindrops hitting the ground, nobody could really hear their conversation.

"I like his playful mood," he replied to her with a boyish grin on his face.

"And I don't want to hear anything about it." Pia faked disgust from Daniel's words. Well, just partly faked. She didn't really want to know what Daniel was doing with Jules when they were both in a playful mood. So, she just walked away from Daniel for her own sake.

"Can I talk to you, dad?" Pia asked when she approached Seb. She felt so ashamed because of the thing she had done.

"Go on." Sebastian's voice was cold. He was still mad at her.

"I'm sorry that I had lied to you about my marks," Pia apologised while watching her shoes because she couldn't look into Sebastian's eyes. She had lied about her marks because she wanted to go with Seb to Singapore and Japan. She told him that she was passing all her exams with flying colours, but she wasn't. "I won't do it again, promise," she lifted two fingers on her hand as a gesture of a promise.

"I would appreciate it. Just hug me now," Sebastian smiled at her. Pia quickly wrapped her hands around him. Her head rested on his chest. That was something that she hadn't even done with her biological father. "I'm still mad tho," he said before he let her go.

---

It was almost 3 pm, and Pia found herself sitting in the Red Bull garage with headphones on her ears. She watched people on grandstands hiding in their raincoats. She was bouncing with her leg while watching the cars parking on the grid after a formation lap. She was staringly staring at those lights waiting for five green ones.

Heavy rain made the track surface wet and reduced visibility. Starting from behind the safety car, the race was stopped after two laps and resumed 20 minutes later, but the conditions weren't any better.

Pia spent those 20 minutes watching Max. He was sitting just a few meters away from her. She still couldn't believe Max got a chance to participate during the training of Formula 1 at such a young age. He took part in Friday practice, where he was the twelfth fastest, which was more than impressive.

---

The young Italian loudly cheered when Sebastian managed to overtake Bottas in the 18th lap, moving up to the fourth position. Later on, on the 29th lap, Lewis took the lead of this race. Pia wasn't really interested in it.

But then the rain was getting worse and worse.

"Just fucking red flag the race," Pia muttered to herself. She thought that no one had heard her, but then she got a reply from Max.

"They won't do it," he announced. He knew that the rain was getting worse and worse. In his opinion, they should've red flag the race, especially with the aquaplaning. But he knew race directors wanted to have a whole race. "It's almost 5 pm, and the sunset is in like twenty minutes. They wouldn't have time to restart it," he explained. There were just twelve laps to go. He was hoping that nothing terrible would happen.

She knew he was right. Everyone in the paddock knew that this weather was coming. FIA offered organisers the opportunity to start the race as early as 11 am, but Honda did not want to move it, even by an hour. Everyone here knew it was a decision made based on money. The whole paddock was ruled by money.

It was lap 42 when Adrian Sutil had gone off into the barriers. Pia was watching the replay. There was nothing that Sutil could've done - he was just a passenger. The young Italian was pretty much sure Sutil wouldn't be the only driver to lose control of their car.

To protect the course workers and to warn other drivers of danger ahead double waved yellow flags were displayed. Pia watched Jules's Marussia MR03 emerging to the Dunlop Curve a lap later.

When his Marussia arrived on the same piece of water that caught out Sutil just over a minute and a half earlier, Jules lost control of the car, just like Sutil had done. The Frenchman over-corrected the car, which had lost rear grip and ended up heading straight off the track. By that point, a crash was unavoidable. It was just a question of what Jules's car would hit and how hard.

Unfortunately, the worst scenario had occurred. Jules's Marussia collided with the rear of a tractor crane, tending to the removal of Adrian Sutil's Sauber.

It took that much to red-flag the god damn race.

The cars started coming back to the garage. It was clear that the race wouldn't resume. Lewis Hamilton just won the Japanese Grand Prix, but no one seemed to care.

Pia didn't really know what she should do. Tears started streaming down her cheeks. She quickly closed her eyes and said a prayer for Jules. When she opened her eyes, she could see Sebastian walking into the garage. His worried look disturbed her.

And then Daniel entered the garage. He was still wearing a helmet. Pia knew why. She was almost sure that the Australian was crying, and he didn't want to let anyone else know. She knew that she had to stop him from watching that footage. It looked that just learning about Jules's crash from radio had done already more than enough damage.

Pia quickly stood up when she saw that Daniel was about to turn around and look at the monitors. It took her just a few steps to be next to Daniel. She just took his hand and led him to his driver room.

Both - Sebastian and Max watched them, but they didn't, and they couldn't fully understand what Daniel was going through.

As soon as Pia closed the door behind them, Daniel took his helmet down, revealing Pia his red and puffy eyes. "I need to see that crash. I need to see how bad it is," he said. His voice was shaking.

"Promise me that you won't watch it," Pia demanded. She wasn't sure if Daniel would bear it. They both know it was horribly wrong. "Please."

The Australian didn't reply. Pia could see how his eyes got watery. A loud sob left his throat before he burst into tears. So, she did the only thing she could. She just wrapped her hands around Daniel and held him.