Losing Grip

My biggest dread

2023 Azerbaijan

Verstappen's POV:

I hate street circuits. The road is narrow, the asphalt is bad and the bends don't go well either for me. It's just horrible, not for racing. However, there are drivers who drive better on these, which I can't understand. Among them, Charles Leclerc. We have always been arch enemies since go-karting. We didn't even have a normal conversation where we didn't want to kill each other. It was quali day and I was walking in the paddock looking at my phone when someone came into me. When I looked up I saw that it was Charles. I got angry and he didn't seem any happier either.

"Look where you're going Leclerc! Are you fucking blind?!" -I frowned at him

"You're the one staring at your phone, asshole!" -he shouted back

"Don't raise your voice at me!" -I said and I felt that I'm going to lose my temper

"You know what? You're right." -he said and turned around to go to his garage- "It's impossible to discuss anything with you." -he grumbled and left

I hated that our relationship was like this, but somehow I could never talk to him in any other way, yet in the last few days I started to feel more and more that I wanted to be good with him. "Fuck, what the fuck is wrong with me?!" I thought. He is my enemy, I can't be good with him. Daniel is my best friend, but I have a completely different relationship with him and I have never been bad with him. Maybe we could be friends with Charles after all. I went into the garage and got into the car and in Q1 I had a lot of thoughts going through my head and I ran worse and worse times. Then in Q3, GP's voice pulled me out of my reverie.

"Max you need to concentrate more. You can still do it to the first row just wait for Norris to pass you and go in his wind shadow" -he said

"Understood" -I said and looked at my mirrors to see Lando

When he passed me, I got behind him and followed him till the half of the 2nd DRS zone.

"Full throttle now" -GP said and I broke out behind him and took over

I went full throttle as I passed the flag.

"Okay Max it's P2. It's P2 behind Leclerc."

Offuckingcourse he was in pole. I was angry at myself. I was shit.

I turned in the first corner and I almost ran into LeClerc who was driving on the ideal curve at about 50km/h.

"What a fucking idiot!!!" -I shouted on the radio

When I got out of the car, I saw that Perez and Leclerc were already here. My blood was boiling but I tried to hide it. We posed for a picture together, then Charles gave an interview and went to his driver's room, and I followed. I've had enough of him playing the fucking superstar and being innocent. I entered his room and slammed the door behind me and he turned around.

"What are you doing here?! You shouldn't be here" -he said a bit panicked

"I'm fed up with you! You play in front of the media, and you're not a fucking innocent! And today I almost went into you because you are driving like my grandma on the ideal curve, but yours is the fucking pole not mine!" -I shouted at him