Against You

The Enemy

Lando POV

Qatar is beautiful. The sky is dark, and a little bit of wind helps keep me cool between the hot engine and dirty air from other cars. I take some deep breaths and concentrate on Max, the car in front. The safety car turns off its flashing lights and I hover my foot above the throttle, ready.

It isn't difficult to skip past Verstappen. The Red Bull hasn't had the power to compete with the Mercedes engine this year, so I leave him in my dust at the second corner. Alonso doesn't put up much of a fight either, he knows I'm far faster and not the person he needs to be fighting with today. By the end of the eighth lap I'm up to third place.

A bright red blur keeps flashing in my mirror. One of the Ferraris is coming through behind me, using my tow to stay close on my tail. My brand new tyres cooled a lot during the safety car period and now I'm vulnerable. I press my lips together, but there's nothing I can do to stop Sainz coming past on the main straight.

I swear in frustration. Leclerc isn't far behind either, and in the tiny flashes I get to see, I notice Oscar is right there with him.

"Lando, conserve your tyres please. Plan C."

"Leclerc is catching me!"

"He hasn't pitted."

I let out a high-pitched whine inside my helmet. I'm going to need all the luck I can get to hold out until my pit stop.

As it happens, however, I don't. Another safety car on the fifteenth lap forces us all to slow down and bunch up. Sainz had been streaking off into the distance so I'm glad for the opportunity to catch him, but I'm far less glad that Leclerc and Piastri are now directly behind me. I have to check twice, but it seems like Oscar is now ahead of Charles.

The safety car goes in quickly, and Oscar overtakes me too.

"No!" I bash my steering wheel. This is the last thing I need, the last thing my championship needs. I shout into my radio.

"What's the plan?"

"All the same, you are free to race Oscar."

"We shouldn't be racing, I should be ahead!"

"Negative."

I seethe like a hot volcano, but keep my eyes focussed forward. It's a good job I do. I'm the first to see when Sainz swerves sideways into the wall.

My car veers to the right to avoid the debris but I still feel pieces hitting the bodywork all around me. I slow right down in the double yellow flags, craning my neck into my mirrors to see what happened.

"Is he okay?" I gasp down the radio. Carlos' car is in a million pieces, the front wing disintegrated and spread across the whole road.

"We think so, he's moving."

"What happened?"

"Failed overtake on Russell. Russell is boxing, stay out."

I breathe a sigh of relief and adjust my seating, covered in a fresh layer of sweat. "Copy."

It's another safety car, and I'm glad I'm not the one who'll restart the race. I've been bumped up after the accident with George falling behind after his pit stop. I sit quietly behind Oscar, keeping my distance and biding my time in third.

Then he goes.

Oscar gets a bad start, not anticipating that I would race him so hard. Oscar fumbles a corner and Charles and I both overtake him on the inside, easy, and start to pull out a lead in front. With my pit stop almost looming I can afford to keep up with Perez. I know I'll need to box again, but the team in my ear tells me to push to eke the most out of the rubber I have now.