Lock Up ⏐Charles Leclerc

Chapter 41

I'm so happy for Charles! We finally saw him on a podium again but I also feel sad for Carlos 😢 We could've had another 1-2 finish in Austria if his engine didn't catch fire. It's a good thing he got out safe but the marshals were a bit slow about it 😬

Enjoy!

*****

For the first time ever, I'm not watching from a team's garage. I wanted to have the full F1 experience which is why I found myself standing in the grandstand.

Thankfully, the rain hadn't come today which meant the track was dry and DRS was going to be enabled after two laps. I was by the back, sitting next to a group of teenage boys wearing McLaren caps while a couple who wore Ferrari shirts sat on my right. I decided to go neutral and wore a plain black shirt, grey trousers, and white sneakers. A cap was placed above my head with the F1 logo to keep people from recognizing me. It's a good thing their attention was elsewhere.

I sent Milo an update saying I was doing okay here as the cars did their formation lap. Max was starting on pole today with both of the Mercedes on P2 and P3. It wasn't a good grid placement for Ferrari with Carlos starting fifth since Lando placed a better time than him during qualifying while Charles was in P20.

The crowd grew silent as the red lights came to view and soon enough, the cars were moving. I kept my eyes on Charles the entire time and he got a good start, moving up to P17 after driving in between Mick and Alex while leaving Nicholas to P20 behind him. The driver in front of him was Kevin who he managed to overtake once DRS was enabled. By the twentieth lap, Charles had moved from P20 to P12, overtaking Zhou, Kyvat, Esteban, and Stroll. He was now behind Sebastian, his former teammate, who was doing good inside the Aston Martin unlike his teammate who just caused the first yellow flag of the race.

It was only a virtual safety car which was removed after a few seconds since Stroll had lost control of his rear tires, moving to the gravel. Unlike in Monaco, he waited for a clear space to move back, surely being told by his race engineer that another penalty would cost him the race. Sebastian gave Charles a challenge, the four-time world champion showing everyone that his drive was still there. It was five laps later that Charles passed through during the straights, moving to P11, just one position shy of the points. Yuki's AlphaTauri was two seconds away from him and Charles used DRS as soon as he was within reach, leaving him in between Yuki and Pierre.

Through the LED screen placed in front of the grandstand, both Yuki and Pierre's radio came on where their respective engineers instructed them to defend position against Charles. I couldn't help but hold my hands together as we watched them battle it out in the chicane in Sector 1, the cars of Pierre and Charles going wheel to wheel while Yuki stuck behind them. They were on the straight in Sector 2 when all three cars aligned with one another, Charles in the middle, and the crowd went wild as we waited who was going to come out of it in the lead. Charles braked a little later than the two, moving himself up to P9.

"Come on. Just eight more to go." I whispered to myself, my right knee bouncing as I watched him pull away from the two AlphaTauris.

Bottas was the next driver and it was currently the thirtieth lap. He'd be having a hard time to overtake once he goes against the top performing cars. Battling the previous Mercedes driver proved difficult but when another yellow flag was waived, Charles began heading for the pits. The screen moved to Max Verstappen who had lost control of the wheel and hit the wall by the hairpin, losing his chances of winning the Canadian Grand Prix. A safety car was brought out and the teams took this as an opportunity to change tires. Because Charles was one of the first to pit, he came out in P8 after Bottas and Daniel, along with gaining another position since Max was out of the race.