it was now quali day and all the drivers were getting into the mindset and ready to set their fastest times. taeyeon was sat in the mercedes garage waiting for the greenlight to go and get into their car.
when she was finally allowed in the car she waited for the signal from the staff in front of her car allowing a safe exit, it didn't take very long.
there was free road in front of her as she drove her out lap hoping to familiarize herself more with the track.
as soon as taeyeon left the final turn she began to zig zag her car for last minute tire warm ups before stepping on the gas going for a fast lap.
she made sure that she kept her turns clean and stayed on the racing lines. she zoomed past all the cars on their slow laps and continued to fly setting personal best. she pushed her car to it's limits and her efforts only gave her p11 for q1.
"come back in the pits tae, you're safe so we'll preserve your tires" her race engineer, grayson, spoke through the radio.
"alright" taeyeon replied upset about her position currently.
qualification didn't get any better for the rookie, she was left p15 after q2.
as she pulled back into the pits all she could think about was where she was studying the times she put in to try to get a sense of where she went wrong but couldn't pin point where the mistakes were.
she wasted no time getting out of the car once she was able to, her mind was in the gutters right now. how could she go from all the joy in the world at p2 to a low of p15? taeyeon knew she could do better and she should've done better. her father would've been disappointed in her no child of his was a loser. her father was a racing champion winning two world championships in his time. she had so much to live up to and everyone knew it.
sungho lee was taeyeon's role model for her early racing days, he still is to this day. she wants to be just like her father. he was the one who got her into karting, and she wished to continue of his legacy. after his passing when she was fifteen she was more determined than ever to carry on what he left.
her father always wanted to race for mercedes, it's a team of prestige and one that houses legends. it should've housed him, sugho had signed for mercedes in 2016 and that same year two weeks after signing he was involved in a major crash at the austrian grand prix taking his life.
taeyeon could only think of her father and what he would've thought of her performance as she walked as fast as she could to go get weighed. she wanted to get out of the peering eyes of the public, she kept her interviews short and then she booked it to her drivers room.
