Deep Breath | Daniel Ricciardo

Part Ninety-Seven

🎵 Lover - Taylor Swift 🎵

The weekend had progressed amazingly, Daniel was beating his best times every lap, gaining pole position in qualifying. We'd worked like crazy over the whole weekend, so much of the weekend was for sponsors and the fans it actually left little time for him to prepare for the racing. It was race day and I hadn't even seen Michael yet, I'd been taking Daniel and Max to session after session of media and then Isla had filming to do. There was so much chatter about the pregnancy and it was bought up in every press interview. Christian had said he was happy for it to be discussed but not to let it become a distraction, that was hard considering all Daniel wanted to talk about was becoming a dad.

It was about 45 minutes before the race when Michael dragged Dan away to get him prepped. Most of that time would be relaxing warm ups, keeping cool until about 20 minutes before he jumped in the car.

I saw him a few moments before he jumped into the car, he placed a kiss on my forehead and two on the bump. It wasn't something we'd done in public and the eyes were on us. "Drive safe" I whispered as he came for another kiss.

"Come out on the track with Michael"

"Ok"

We headed toward the grid as all the cars started their formation lap. It was the first time in the second part of the season that I'd actually been out on the grid. We'd obviously not been in the right space for it right at the beginning and then it became a case of avoiding unnecessary eyes on me after we'd made us official. I was watching as they helped him jump out of the car and start cooling the breaks. He came up behind me and held me round the bump. We didn't need to talk, he put his music on and I stood talking to Michael. I noticed Martin Brundle approaching as he headed toward the front of the grid.

"Libby can we catch a word." I smiled at him in response and felt Daniel shift and hold onto me tighter.

"We have to say a massive congratulations"

"Thank you"

"How are you feeling about your guy this weekend, we won't disturb him too much"

"Really positive weekend, in the right position to take this whole race in a breeze"

"You don't expect much of a fight"

"Oh no there will be plenty of fights, this season has been known for it. But I can see that the team have given Dan a car he can go out and win with"

"We'll we will see, very positive words there from Daniels media manager now partner who has announced they are expecting" I smiled as he walked away and felt Daniels breath on my neck. "Good job"

"Almost like I'm paid to do it" I smirked as I turned to him  he was called to go stand for the national anthem and I headed back to the pits.

Lights out... the race started pretty well. He'd held his position and avoided any damage. Lewis and max were going hell to leather at each other, both held equal positions in the world championship and Daniel was 4 points behind. We all watched with pride as our two red bull drivers pressed on.

'Oh and there goes a red bull into the wall' I held my breath. 'It's... is it Daniel. No it's verstappen and that- is that... it's Hamilton.'

They'd got to close in the corner and wiped each other out. Daniel was safe from the chaos behind but they had to red flag the race. They all headed back to the pits and waited for the cars to be cleared. They'd been told to stay in their cars so I stayed back until Michael called me over. I saw Daniels hand waving at me. "You okay?" I asked

"I wanted to ask you the same"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me go and win this race baby"

He put his thumb up and I kissed his helmet. The race restarted and Daniel got a clean start. He was holding first place for nearly the whole race. He had Charles close by when they both pitted, red bull was .4 seconds quicker meaning he got a better pull out the pit lane. He was doing it, he was going to win the race.