74

50

After the disappointing weekend in the Netherlands and not getting the results we wanted, it was time to move on to the next race which is Monza. What can I say about Monza? It's literally one of most favourite races on the calendar. Being at the Temple of Speed, definitely gets my blood pumping as well as the adrenaline. Since I missed the first sprint race which was held a couple of months ago at Silverstone, it was finally my chance to try the new racing format. And I was excited to do so. 

With FP1 finished, I crossed the line in a respectable P9, still in the top 10. Well, that's my aim every weekend is to be in the top 10. Also, I do think that it is every driver's aim to be in the top 10 every weekend since that is where you get the points on race day. Once the car was back in the garage, I look out at the front of the garage and up at the grandstand and its amazing to see it filled with fans cheering you on. It honestly makes me feel so much better having fans watch you race than having an empty grandstand. 

It honestly felt so weird having qualifying on a Friday, so that was something new for me to experience. You never know I might actually like it but it's just going to be strange as I'm so used to doing qualifying on a Saturday. Meeting up with my race engineer Tom, to go over the data that was gathered from the practice session, he was telling me that, I needed to be careful when going around turns one and two because of the sausage curb, as it wasn't very good for the management of my tyres. Also, Tom told me that I could improve my timings in sector two as they were a little bit slow but there weren't really any major concerns that I needed to worry about. So, it was time to relax for a little while, before heading back out onto the track for my first sprint qualifying. 

Walking through the paddock back over to hospitality, feeling the Italian heat on my skin, just gave me that overall spring in my step and put such an obvious smile on my face, which my boyfriend saw the minute I walked into hospitality. 

"What's got you all smiley?" my boyfriend asked me 

"I don't really know Lan. I'm just happy and obviously, you make me over the moon happy every day but it's not every day, that you get to race here at Monza and you know how much I love this track" was my response to my boyfriend's question. 

"I remember, back in our karting days, you would always tell me that one day you will win at Monza and I have a gut feeling that it will happen this weekend," Lando told me as he squeezed my hand as a sign of reassurance. 

"If you have a gut feeling that you are going be on the podium this weekend, I have a gut feeling that you will be on that podium with me. Our first Formula One podium together and as boyfriend and girlfriend" I told Lando, as I pulled him into a gentle but sweet hug. 

During the time between FP1 and qualifying, I decided to have something to eat. Something that is going to fill me up and give me the energy that I need for the qualifying session. As Jon is strict on what me and Lando can eat, he made us have one of our usual balanced protein meals. Luckily he gave us the chicken and mushroom risotto because the chilli con Carne meal is disgusting and Lando can agree with me on that one.  

Once me and Lando had finished our food, we headed back over to the garage to talk to our engineers and mechanics about the car set up and other bits and pieces that needed to be talked about. With all my racing gear on, I jumped into the car and got strapped in by one of my engineers and I was good to go out onto the track. 

Q1

My main focus in this first part of qualifying was maintaining a position in the top 10. With the occasional bits of information coming over the radio, that my sector 2 and sector 3 were purple, that is something that I am proud of because a majority o my sectors are always green or yellow but knowing that I'm getting purple sectors, makes me really happy and it also gives me the motivation to push myself to do better. By the end of Q1, I was in P6 which was good enough for me.