For Real | Lando Norris

𝑺𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏.

Lando

I look into my mirrors and see the pink Alpine of Esteban right behind me. "Come on, come on." The whisper of luck to my car is maybe idle prayer, but we were in a okay place today and maybe I can ride it out until the end.

We come out of turn 19 and I know with DRS he is going to pass me. I try to push the car, but it's no use and I see the Alpine racing by. "Damn it."

I try to get it back in the last meters but Esteban just stays ahead of me. I let go of my gas pedal a little and start my in lap. It was a good race. The car was okay, definitely better than in Bahrain and I feel a little hope that we can get the car where it needs to be. For now I am happy with P7.

I drive to parc ferme and get out of the car where I am greeted by Will. "That was good, we were good today. I think we can be positive about the future." He smiles at me and gives me a pad on the back. "I don't want to get my hopes up just yet, but I think we'll get there." I say while walking to the paddock. "I'll see you after the interviews." I wave at will and walk to Lucinda who starts talking to me about the interviews that are scheduled for after the race.

***

It's been a long evening and I finally get into the car to head to the hotel. When I take my seat in the back of the car the other door opens and Daniel gets in with me. "Hey mate," he says. He looks as exhausted as he sounds and I smile as a means of greeting him.

"I thought you'd have left by now?" I ask him. "No, I was held back by Tom to discuss the engine failing. We don't fully understand why it happened but we will look into it next week. I just wanna get to the hotel and sleep. How late do we fly tomorrow?"

I take out my phone to check the time of our flight and see I have two texts from Ophelia. A smile appears on my lips when I read the message.

Lia🌞 sent you a new message
I watched the race, aren't you proud? 

Lia🌞 sent you a new message
I won't pretend I understand Formula one already, but from what Sabine explained P7 is very good. So, good job!

"Is that who I think it is?" I turn my head and see Daniel looking at my phone with a grin on his face. "Maybe." I mumble and unlock my phone to check the flight. "We fly at ten, so we need to be at the airport at 8.30."

"Okay thanks. Now back to your lady. Is it Tinder girl? So she is finally not angry at you anymore after you screwed up?" I push him in annoyance and say, "Yes it's Ophelia and I didn't screw up. She found out."

"You screwed up in the first place by not telling her mate." he says reproachfully. I let my head lean against the car window. "Yeah I know, but she called me last wednesday and we had a good talk."

"Finally, so you stop being all anxious and sad now?" He ruffles my hair and I push his hand away. "I wasn't that bad."

"Mate, you were horrible to work with last week. You were so distracted that I got questions about it. That's bad." He laughs at me and takes out his own phone.

I laugh too, because he is right. I was a mess when Ophelia broke contact. I was distracted, constantly thinking about texting her. I even spent a full meeting searching for her Instagram, but it was no use because until a couple days ago I didn't even know her last name. Thinking back about that I realize I still haven't found her Instagram.

I open the app and go to the search area. I type in 'Ophelia Richardson' and there pop up a lot of accounts. I look at the first few and see a profile picture that looks like the one I am looking for. The name says @Ophelia.R and I select the account and see it's private. I click the following request button. It doesn't get accepted right away so I guess she's not on her phone anymore.