Sehnsucht | lando norris

- 3 -

Present

"That's P10, Gisela, P10," Mason announced over the radio as she slowed the car down, the checkered flag waving down the straight when she finished her fast lap.

"Great job, guys, let's see how far we can get tomorrow," Gisela said, smiling under her helmet as she pulled into the pitlane. The mechanics pushed her car into the garage, and she could see Mick's car parked in the spot next to hers already.

"What position did Mick qualify?" Her brows furrowed as she awaited an answer from her race engineer.

He quickly replied, "P11."

Gisela got out of the car, leaving her helmet and balaclava on a counter in the garage before making her way over to her drivers room. However, before she could enter, she was stopped by her media manager, Andrew.

"Post-quali interviews are in 5 minutes," he reminded her, and she nodded. The young woman closed the door behind her and let herself fall on the small couch that stood in her room. She was laying on her stomach, head on her arms as she let her thoughts run wild.

In the first qualification of the season, she had placed 10th, which was by far her best. She had out-qualified her brother, even if it was just by one position.

She had out-qualified him.

"Shit," she muttered, pushing herself up from the couch and sprinting out of the room.

Gisela stepped to the screens that were filled with statistics, times and points of improvement. Her eyes rapidly scanned over it, finding what she was looking for. Mick's lap time, and hers, both from Q2.

P10. Gisela Schumacher 1:30.809

P11. Mick Schumacher 1:30:811

"Scheiße," she said as she sprinted off to find her brother. As she ran through the halls, she felt conflicted. On the one hand, she was glad that she had been able to prove herself, but on the other hand, she felt bad for her brother. She couldn't imagine how he felt, after his sister, who was new to the team, outqualified him in the first quali of the season, even if it was by 2 thousandth of a second.

"Mick?" she spoke up a she knocked on the door of his drivers room, but no response came.

Suddenly, Andrew appeared from around the corner, equipment in hand.

"You ready?" he asked, as he signalled for Gisela to follow him.

"Have you seen Mick?" She rubbed her temples, walking behind him and shielding her eyes from the blinding lights around the circuit.

"He's probably in the media pen already, just like you should've been," he said with a scolding look on his face. Gisela looked down at her watch with confusion, realising, to her surprise, that she had taken more than 5 minutes.

"Sorry, I forgot the time," she smiled at him, strolling into the media pen and finding a reporter waiting there for her.

They went over the usual questions, how qualifying went, what she thought of the car, and how well she expected to be able to perform with it. Luckily, she was able to steer away from any questions involving her gender, something that she had learned to do over the past year. This wasn't her first rodeo.

"Now, there's one more question, one that everyone is dying to know the answer to." The reporter in front of her grinned in a way that nearly made Gisela scared for what was to come.