Final Lap | F1 oneshots

expectations | CL16 & MV1

Singapore 2023 - Saturday

It was way past midnight when Charles swiped his pass at the gates. Ferrari had already celebrated a  bit after the good qualifying. With Carlos on pole and himself on the third place the team was more than happy.

Of course Charles himself wasn't that happy but despite his struggles on his last lap he was glad to start from the second row at all. He also knew that Russell in front of him wouldn't make it easy for him tomorrow to get past but there was still a chance.

Also the team celebrates because RedBull had such a bad qualifying. Nobody had explicit said it but they all were happy that Verstappen was outqualified by Lawson. With him starting in P11 there was a long race with out any danger for the Ferraris.

Also he had some cases at the stewards that weren't clear until now so maybe he would start from further behind, maybe behind Perez. Even though Charles was happy that max wasn't dominating this weekend he felt a bit for the Dutchman.

Over the last years they had grown closer and were now good friends, even though the last couple of weeks had been a bit strange. Besides that they were close friends and he now knew Max so well that he had a thought of how angry the Dutch was.

It always made something to Charles when the Dutchman was angry about a result because he deep down knew that the Dutchman was also sad. It was different from the sadness he felt when Ferrari fucked up the strategy but it made something to him.

He always liked seeing max on the podium and celebrating, behind him of course, but the Dutch always had this big smile on his face and there was always this glimmer in his eyes that Charles had noticed.

Charles shook his head as walked back through the streets of Singapore. Why was he even thinking so much about his rival, he had a good position for tomorrow to fight for the win and, what was very new to the last weeks, he didn't need to care about Max, not at least for the first ten laps.

A smile went over his lips and he giggled as he thought about the last thing. All the memes of Max and Alonso were hilarious where the Spaniard said a lap number and Max target it to overtake him, it was always funny to see.

But now Charles needed to focus on tomorrow and his own race. Even tough Max was a good friend, tomorrow was all about Ferrari and especially his own car, he needed to beat Carlos. The podium in Monza still hurt him, seeing Carlos there instead of himself.

This time it was his weekend, his Sunday, even though the Spaniard had done great sessions yesterday and today but tomorrow he had to be the first. With that thought he crossed the street and was about to take the last corner to his hotel when he saw a person sitting on a small bench next to the water.

Even though the man was wearing a hood he immediately recognized the person. Charles argued in his head if he either should go to him or just leave him sitting there with his head in his hands and just go to sleep.

He was tired and tomorrow was an important race but he couldn't let his friend sit there alone with all these emotions he must have, so Charles sighed before he slowly went into the direction of the Dutch.

In two meters distance he stopped and looked at the back of his friend. He looked so exhausted and completely over with his nerves. Charles couldn't barley imagine what it was like to win ten races in a row and then fall out in Q2.

Slowly he took three more steps in the direction, across the bench.

"Please leave me alone." the Dutchman said without even looking up from his hands, that held his head.