Mon Amour | 𝑪.𝑳

Part 59

The British Grand Prix was a big deal for McLaren.

Not only was it Lando's home race but it was also the teams home race.

The same could be said for many of the teams on the grid this season: Red Bull Racing was based half an hour away from the circuit in Milton Keynes, Williams was roughly an hour away in Oxford, Aston Martin was on site at Silverstone circuit, Mercedes was twelve minutes down the road in Brackley. Much like Williams, Alpine was based in Oxford so they were only an hour away as well and Haas was based in Banbury, half an hour away from the track.

With there being multiple British drivers, it meant that there was always a flood of fans rocking either Mercedes or McLaren caps. Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Lando Norris were the three names you could hear the most during the weekend.

So the British Grand Prix was a big deal and the race weekend was always packed with fans.

The morning of race day was chaotic, the hotel had been packed with drivers, team principals, mechanics and engineers rushing from one place to the next, the roads were blocked with streams of traffic trying to get into the circuit and nearly everyone was arriving into the paddock late. Lyla had sprinted from the paddock entrance to the McLaren motorhome to attempt to get to the team meeting on time only to arrive and find out that Lando and Daniel had accepted their fate and were quite happily strolling through the paddock without a care in the world.

Everyone from every team was on the edge of their seats. Mercedes were worried about Max Verstappen and Red Bull was worried about Charles Leclerc. McLaren just wanted to have both cars in the points whilst Haas and Williams wanted to have one race where they didn't crash or have issues.

A few hours before the race after Charles had finished his track walk, he came to find Lyla.

They had gotten slightly unbothered about the intimacy they showed around the pit lane and garage over the course of the weekend.

"I believe in you." Lyla grins, cupping Charles' face as he looks down at her. "You've got this."

"You say that all the time." Charles laughs.

"And do I ever lie?" Lyla quirks an eyebrow. "No, exactly."

Charles glances around before ducking his head and pressing a quick kiss onto her lips causing Lyla to smile and drop her hands from his face, placing them on his shoulders instead. Charles' hand took their place on the sides of her face instead before he pulled away from her.

"Go get them champ." She says softly, kissing him once more.

"For you and only you." Charles replies, dropping his hands.

She watched him walk off and ducked back into the McLaren motorhome only to be greeted with a grinning Daniel and Lando wiggling his eyebrows.

"Creeps." She mutters, shaking her head at them.

"You two are just so adorable." Daniel squeals.

"I just want to squeeze you both." Lando adds.

"You two are weirdos." Lyla's nose wrinkles slightly. "Strange, strange people."

"Weirdos that you love though." Daniel smirks.

"Don't let it get to your heads." Lyla replies.

They disappeared to go and get ready for the race and go through their pre-race routines. Lyla headed into the garage to help set everything up.

From the minute the lights went out, everyone was on edge.

Lewis and Max had a rather horrible collision on the first lap which lead to Max's car getting completely shredded in the barriers and a red flag was put out. Thankfully, the Red Bull driver walked away from the wreck and was taken to hospital for further examination. The race continued after the restart with teams climbing and losing places all over the place.

Fans were going insane, mechanics were shouting every time there as an overtake, Zac was smiling because both of his drivers were finally performing at the same level.

Lyla was nervous, anxiously fiddling with her necklace underneath her t-shirt as she watched the data before her. Her headphones were sat on her head relaying Lando's radios into her ears but she kept glancing to the tv screens to see Charles' name climbing from P4 to P3 and P3 and P2. There was already controversy surrounding the Lewis-Max incident and she knew that it would stir a lot of rumours and things around the fandom like usual.

When the cars crossed the line, she watched the Mercedes team and Ferrari team fly from their garages screaming happily. Hanging themselves over the catch fencing as their drivers flew past.

Lando finished P4 and Daniel P5.

Everyone started jumping around and cheering in the papaya garage. Lyla was scooped up by different mechanics to many times to count and she didn't think she would have enough of a voice left to scream about Charles' podium later on.  The whole McLaren team was desperate to celebrate with their drivers and they rushed down to Parc Ferme the minute they could.

It was ensured that Lyla was at the front of the barriers in plain vision to the top three because the team knew what was going to happen with her and Charles.

Lando and Daniel rushed from their cars and jumped at their team. They were celebrating like it was a podium and their shouts drowned out the Mercedes and Ferrari cheers around Parc Ferme. Lando hugged Lyla so tightly that she was nearly pulled over the barriers meaning everyone was laughing loudly at the scene. The engineers and mechanics at the front of the barriers - Lyla included - were clutching onto the barriers to make sure that they didn't fall over, something Ferrari hadn't thought about.

The bright red team had brought the barriers tumbling down to the ground and therefore, their mechanics, engineers and Charles had fallen to the ground with them in their states of celebration. Lyla's heart swelled with pride as she watched the way he reacted to his second place podium spot and it wasn't long before he had removed his helmet and handed it to Andrea who'd picked himself up from the floor.

When Charles turned to the orange team to try and spot his girl, Lando and Daniel practically lifted Lyla up to show the Monegasque where she was.

Cameras turned to face the laughing Lyla and other cameras turned away from the winner of the race to catch the scene unfolding before them.

Charles Leclerc sprinted over to Lyla Andre-Accardi, stopping in front of the barriers before her. He grabbed her face in his hands and pulled her towards him, this caused Lyla's hands to travel around Charles' neck as their lips met. The kiss was slightly exaggerated purely for the entertainment of Netflix cameras and media cameras around but everyone around the two of them was screaming and shouting.

Lando, Daniel, Lewis and Valtteri were shouting the loudest.

Charles pulled away from Lyla, holding eye contact with her as her cheeks flushed.

"I love you." The words fall from his lips before he could even think.

Lyla froze slightly before her smile got even wider, she completely forget about the fact they were surrounded by other people and had every single camera around pointed at them because she used her hands on the back of his neck to tug him back to her and close the gap between them once more.

"I love you too, Charles Leclerc." She replies in between the kisses.

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Fun fact, I actually live nearby to where Red Bull is based.

Writing that paragraph about the teams based in the UK honestly made me realise just how much of the grid is actually based in the UK and how many of them are based about an hour from me since I live close to Silverstone.

Much love,
- Hollie :)