The Race Director's Daughter (Sebastian Vettel)

17. Done Dirty

Seb's race engineer, Chris Cronin, sighed. He had bad news for Seb and he didn't know how he was going to break it to him. After an amazing qualifying, in which he finished P2, Seb had taken the lead at the start of the race and had looked set to win his first race for Aston Martin.

However, after he had made his pit stop he'd rejoined the track in the middle of the battle for sixth place between Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.

He'd been unable to pass Lando for a couple of laps and had begun to get frustrated. He'd made a small mistake, going off of the track. He'd rejoined without losing a place to Carlos, however the team had just been notified that after an investigation, Seb had been awarded a five second time penalty.

At the moment the gap between him and second placed Verstappen was 3.1 seconds.  There were just fourteen laps remaining.  

"Seb mate, try to stay calm but the stewards investigated you for rejoining in an unsafe manner."

"Of course they fucking did," Seb snarled.  "Fucking Chandler...."

"Enough Sebastian," team principal, Mike Krack, said sternly.  "We'll talk after.  The outcome is a five second penalty.  You currently have a 3.1 lead over Verstappen.  You need to go faster."

They heard the clicking noise that indicated Seb had received the message.  

Inside the cockpit Seb was fuming.  This was just like Canada 2019 all over again. He'd driven his ass off and was going to be robbed of a win that was rightfully his.  He'd had no other way to rejoin!   There was nothing unsafe about it in the slightest.  Fucking Chandler-Webb was unfit to be Race Director.

He'd just have to find two seconds from somewhere.  His foot pushed down heavier on the throttle.   They weren't taking this one from him.   

Lap after lap Seb battled to try and get the five second gap needed.   The problem was Verstappen had obviously been told about the penalty and had got the bit between his teeth.  He was matching Seb's lap times.  There was nothing Seb could do.   He crossed the finish line 3.6 seconds ahead.   He'd lost the win.  

He heard Chris talking in his ear but he didn't respond.  He was beyond pissed off.   After he stopped the car in Parc Ferme he climbed out of the car, shook Max and George's hands.  It wasn't their fault that Chandler-Webb was a vindictive son of a bitch.  

He just wanted to storm off to his driver room and hide away from the world but he knew he had to follow the rules. Chandler-Webb would be waiting for any excuse to punish him further.

So he answered Nico Rosberg's questions through gritted teeth, no commenting the one about the penalty, and then he went to the podium like a good boy.

Afterwards he attended the media pen where there was a lot more no commenting. Once that was done he stormed back to his driver room to get changed before attending the debrief.

As he shut the door behind him he lashed out, kicking his backpack across the room in temper. He roared with anger. That had been his race! It had been stolen from him. Why couldn't Chandler-Webb just get over the past? It had been nearly eight years!

After he'd finished raging he sank down onto the sofa and put his head in his hands. Angry tears pooled in his eyes. What did he have to do to get that win? It had been two and a half years!

There was a knock on the door. "Sebastian," came his press officer Britta's voice. "They're ready for you."

"I'll be there in five Britta." He stood up and began to get changed. He wanted to get it over with and get out of there.