𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹 | 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗰

Chapter 55

Practice 1, P2

Practice 2, P1

Practice 3, P1

Qualifying, P1

Now all that ahead of Charles was the race, which would be starting in less than an hour. We were currently sat in his drivers room but he seemed nervous, which was nothing new from Charles before a race.

"You've got nothing to worry about, you'll do brilliantly as always Charles," I said as I walked over to him, raking my hand through his hair once I got within reaching distance.

"I just have a weird feeling, it isn't nerves like usual. I haven't felt comfortable with the car all weekend and I've had to push it a lot to get the positions that I have got."

He put his head into his hands, that being his way of trying to concentrate and calm his mind before he was expected to enter the car. The way he was made me feel uncomfortable because he had obviously been worried before in this season but with him saying he wasn't nervous he just didn't trust the car, it wasn't the best thing to hear.

"Can you not speak to Xavi about it before the race starts?" I suggested, trying to think of a way for him to get the much needed reassurance.

"What am I meant to say? I don't trust the car? Do you know how silly that sounds Alena." He answered with a little bit of an attitude. I didn't say anything back to it because I knew he didn't mean the tone of voice but it still hurt a little that he was rude like that.

I went and sat back down opposite him and silence filled the air for a good ten minutes, taking us to 35 minutes before the race was going to start. That meant that Charles was now due to be zipping up his race suit so that he could go and be secured in the car, ready for making his way to the starting grid. As he was starting in P1 that would surely give him a confidence boost but as he walked out of the room completely avoiding eye contact with me, I wasn't sure if there was much confidence there at all.

I went to get some headphones ready so that I would be able to listen to the radio once the race began and doing the same was Joris, one of Charles' childhood friends and also his content creator. When he noticed me placing the headphones around my neck, he whistled to get my attention, snapping a quick photo when I looked. I had no clue where that would end up.

I felt like the time in between Charles getting into the car and the car making its way to the track went very slow, as I watched from the garage, tapping my nails on the back of my phone case as I could feel myself getting more and more anxious the closer it got to lights out. Why did things feel so wrong? I feel like Charles had a point because this anxious feeling I felt was nothing like before however it could just be because I'd not had the usual nice little chat with him before he had left.

"You're sure everything is okay with the car now Xavi?" Charles asked as he now waited for the lights in front of him to disappear.

"Positive" Xavi replied.

As the lights went out, all the engines roared and Charles kept his lead on the first corner, keeping Max behind him. The thing about this track is the first sector was pretty straight, meaning it was all about defending and ensuring you were the fastest to reach the next corner. Charles had no issue in doing that as he reached sector two in no time, then sector three then back to sector one.

As laps went by, I heard the confidence in Charles voice again as he told Xavi multiple times that the car felt much better and also faster, which was an added positive. The fight for position 1 was currently between Max and Charles as Max had overtaken Charles but after two laps Charles had soon overtaken Max again. Whereas behind them Lewis and Carlos fought for third.