Lights Out - Charles Leclerc

Chapter Seven

Sienna

As I'm walking through the paddock, the Miami heat really making me struggle to be in the sun, today's qualifying is the only thing on my mind. So far, this season has been great for me. I'm leading the championship, but Max is right behind me, only a few points separating us. I feel like this might be it, this might be the year my dream finally comes true. If I keep pushing and working hard as I've been, I might win this championship after all.

I walk into Red Bull's hospitality and I'm greeted by Evelyn, my PR officer.

"Good morning," She says when she sees me and starts walking with me. "Nervous for today?"

"Good morning. Yeah, I'm feeling the jitters," I say and she laughs a little. We enter the room where we are having a team meeting and I see Max is already there.

"Hello," I say seating in a chair next to him and he looks up from his phone when he hears me.

"Hey Sienna," He says smiling. We don't get much time to talk since the meeting starts just a few seconds after, when Christian walks in. We talk about our strategies and the tire plans and an hour later, the meeting ends and, after wishing Max good luck, I go to my drivers room to change into my racing suit.

When I'm dressed, I sit on the bed and start braiding my hair, something I always do because it's the only way it doesn't bother me in the car. A few minutes later, Josh, my race engineer, knocks on my door telling me it's time and I follow him.

Quali starts in 5 minutes, so I quickly put my ear pieces on, my baclava and then my helmet, and I hoop in the car.

"Radio check," I hear Josh as soon as I'm all strapped in.

"Loud and clear," I tell him and look at one of the mechanics checking if the path is clear for me too leave the garage. Once he gives me clear signal, I drive off.

"Ok Sienna, hard compounds during Q1. Let's push to stay in the top 15," Josh says when I'm on the track and cooling my tires.

"Copy."

Q1 and Q2 go smoothly. My time isn't great, but it's enough to take me to Q3. I do some laps, leaving me always in p4 or p5 and I go to the garage to check the numbers. When there's  7 minutes left of qualifying, I leave again to start a last lap, which will hopefully put me in a better position.

"P2, Sienna, P2," Josh says after I lap. That's a good position... but I want pole.

"How's the tires?" I ask.

"They're good, you still have time for another lap, but that's it."

"Copy," I make my way to the finish line to do a final lap. Everything is going well until I approach turn 8. There's a Ferrari, I can't tell who it is, but they're going so slow and not giving me enough space, making me brake, so that I don't crash into them. When I finally have the space, I keep going. If this makes me loose positions, I'm going to kill whoever that was.

"You're P3 Sienna, P3," Josh says when I cross the finish line.

"For fucks sake! It was that Ferrari in turn 8! Who was it?" I ask, really upset. There's a moment of silence, Josh is probably checking who it was. When he answers, I'm already entering the pit lanes.

"It was Charles," He finally says and I could explode right here. Of course it was.

"I'm going to kill him."

"Negative, Christian says you can't."

"Yeah, Christian is going to have to lock me in a room then," I say, and kill the engine, take off the steering wheel and get out of the car. I look to my side to see who's P1 and P2 and it's Max and Charles respectively. Oh! So, by impending me, Charles got my place. Yeah that's great. I walk over to him, to where he's weighing.