Paper Rings: O.Bearman

𝕮𝒉𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 22

Qualifying and Hannah was in her drivers room warming up as the F3 feature event happened. It was already raining but it was light however it was bound to get heavier. In her free practice session, the Kings Lynn could see the light splashes of rain against her visior before it stopped. But just before her qualifying, the heavens opened and the rain threw itself down. "Okay. Look at me." Arthur says, snapping the out of her thoughts. "What?" Hannah asks looking away from the window to her teammate.

"It's only rain. Don't think about it." Arthur says, placing his arms on either side of her shoulder. "I've never drove in the rain before. Every race, every qualifying, every practice I've done, it's never rained" Hannah says in one breathe. "Look at me." The Monegasque says, taking ber hands into his and tightly holding them. "You'll be okay. We'll be okay as will Ollie and everyone." Arthur reassures her. "We all will be okay. Don't panic, please." her teammate pleads as Hannah takes a few deep breathes.

"I just have a really bad feeling about today." Hannah admits in a whisper. "It's okay to be worried and I'm here to support you beforehand." Arthur reassures her with a soft smile before tugging her arms and tightly hugging her, the girls body shaking in his arms. He gently runs his hand over her hair in an attempt to calm her before qualifying. "It's okay. Just breathe." Arthur whispers as Hannah wraps her arms around his waist with her face buries into his shoulder.

"Pass me a hand." Arthur instructs and Hannah does as he says. "I'll place it here and you just leave it there while you calm down." the monegasque says, placing her hand on his chest, where his heart is. The beat of it against her hand helps the girl get her breathing under control quicker. "Better?" he smiles as she removes her hand and wraps it back around his waist as she nods. "Thank you." she whispers against him.

"Don't worry about it. Are you ready for qualifying?" Arthur asks as Hannah removes her face from the crook of his neck. "As ready as I'll ever be." the brit says before taking a final deep breathe and leaving her drivers room with her teammate following. "You ready?" Eliott approaches her. "Yeah. Lets do this." Hannah nods as she puts her ear protectors in before putting her hair into a low ponytail and tucking it in her race suit before putting her ballyclava and helmet on.

"Okay. Rain due in 10 minutes, don't overthink it. We'll pit you to change to inters just before, get a time on the board first." Michelle says over the radio. "Understood." Hannah responds as she drives out her garage and to the end of the pitlane. "Light green in 2 minutes." the girls engineer says as Hannah takes a few deep breathes. In her mirrors, the girl can see a prema car behind her. "Who's behind me?" Hannah asks Michelle. "Ollie Bearman." the head engineer responds.

"Atleast it isn't Vesti." Hannah laughs as the two minutes pass and she leaves the pitlane and heads onto the track with the cars behind her following. "Okay. So once you've been round, immediately push to get a time on the board." Michelle says over the radio. "Yeah, copy." Hannah responds as she does an outlap around the track. The girl could see the dark clouds rolling in as she drives around the track. "How long until the rain?" Hannah asks over her radio to Michelle.

"7 minutes." the head engineer responds to the F2 driver. She rounds the last few corners and picks up the speed as she heads down the start/finish straight to start her push lap and set a time. "Okay. So we have Pourchaire, Vesti, Doohan and Arthur all with times set. Arthur is currently fastest with a 1:32.757 and Pourchaire has the slowest time of 1:38.630." Michelle says as she looks at the current times set as Hannah pushes her car as fast as she can while going up Eau Rouge and around the track.

"Okay. That's a 23.317 in sector one, 0.6 seconds slower than Arthur. Rain expected in 6 and a half minutes." Hannah's engineer informs her. While continuing her drive, Hannah sets a 40.375 and a 39.435 which overall gives her a time of 1:43.127 and P6. "Okay. That's a 1:43.127 and putting you P6 but there's room to improve. Come back in and we'll change your tires to inters and it's predicted to be raining when we send you back out." Michelle says over the radio. "Yeah. Definitely could have improved sector 2." Hannah says as she heads back around the track and towards the pitlane.