Under the surface

24.

AN: A special chapter as it is the birthday of MMAMMSA  who is the inspiration of this book. Happy Birthday!

Holy crap. Aurelia thought. 5 races left:
• Qatar
• Texas
• Mexico
• Brazil
• Abu Dhabi

All the hardest tracks she has ever faced, not because of the layout, but the conditions. But as she lay in her hotel room next to Ollie, at 4am in the morning, in Lusail, she thought to herself, that it will all become a whole lot easier because she had one thing: Ollie.

The standings were all fairly spread out, with Ollie having a firm lead of the championship currently, and Theo lagging behind. Aurelia was currently fifth in the championship, around 35 points behind Martins in third, and 26 points behind Doohan in the Invicta Virtuosi. But she was determined to make that up.

As Aurelia thought of her and Ollie making it to F1, she drifted off to sleep again.

—

"Aurelia get up we are late!" Ollie shouted as he jumped out of bed. "Quali is in two minutes!"

"What!" Aurelia cried.

The hotel room was in chaos, Aurelia getting showered in the bathroom, and Ollie getting his racesuit on. Ollie reached out Aurelia's suit then left the room to let her get changed.

Despite them quickly getting used to sleeping in the same room, they still gave each other privacy when changing, as a sign of respect.

Once she was ready they both ran down to the track, through the paddock to their PREMA garages. The F2 training really kicked in, as they were able to sprint that entire distance in just under 5 minutes.

"You guys are three minutes late! What were you doing?!" Rène shouted.

"Sorry we overslept" Ollie replied.

Both drivers climbed into their cars, and got the engine started. The mechanics took off their tyre blankets and both cars screeched out of the garages.

"And Nobels and Bearman are out of the garages, they were seen running through the paddock a mere 5 minutes after qualifying began! What do you reckon they were doing, Alex?" Harry Benjamin said.

"Well, Harry, I don't think its important what they were doing because Nobels in on a flyer! Getting the tow from Bearman she has set 2 purple sectors!" Alex Jacques shouted.

Aurelia was at one with the car in her flying lap. She knew she was fast because by the end of sector 2 she had overtaken Ollie and lost her slipstream, but she still heard the radio message of her engineer as she crossed the line:

"Thats provisional pole, you have 3 purple sectors. We still have to wait for Ollie's time and he has your slipstream." He said.

If you thought Aurelia was flying around the Lusail track, you should have seen Ollie, he was nailing every apex, every straight, he was perfect. Until the last corner, where he had a slight wobble. Aurelia crossed the line and didn't improve.

Ollie crossed the line... in... second. By 0.001 second.

"Aurelia... Ollie was one one-thousandth slower than you... your on pole for the Qatar Grand Prix!"

Her excitement was audible, and after Ollie got told he was in second by 0.001 seconds, he was overjoyed for Aurelia as well. His car pulled right next to hers and he waved at her over the halo.

—

"Alright Aurelia and Ollie. Your both going to be on a medium and hard strategy, with Ollie beginning on the slower hards and then finishing strong on mediums, and Aurelia beginning strong then nursing her hards to the end. Alright?" The strategist spoke.

"Got it." Replied both drivers

The team engineers all left the track and left only the 22 cars. The overhead lights begun to light up. One, two, three red lights. Four, five. Then all five flashed a colours the drivers only associate with one word: Go.

Aurelia has a great start on her speedy mediums, with Ollie trailing behind, using her slipstream to keep his tyres warm. This formation continued for over half the race.

The two were untouchable. On the outside they were both calm and composed, but under the surface, both drivers were just hoping they could continue this pace, with over 5 seconds of Victor Martins in third.

"Alright, Aurelia pull into the pits, how are you feeling?"

"The heat is definitely getting to me, I am starting to feel a bit dizzy."

"I meant the tyres. Can you last a lap?"

She didn't respond to that. As Aurelia pulled into the pits, the mechanics pulled a flawless stop, and as she sped out of the pits, she heard that Ollie was into the box in two laps. She began to ease onto her hard tyres making sure that they were warmed up and a peak performance.

"Alright Aurelia, Ollie will come in this lap and come out half a second behind you."

She continued until she saw her partner PREMA sprint out of the pit-lane and follow her into turn one, only about half a car length behind her.

Jack Doohan was ahead of her by only a little, and she was catching him on her fresh tyres.

Alex Jacques was commentating the battle: "And Nobels is on quicker tyres than Doohan but slower tyres than Bearman. This battle will be close, Ollie slightly further back than Nobels and Doohan AND NOBELS MAKES THE MOVE DOOHAN MOVES ACROSS AND OH MY GOODNESS! AURELIA HAS SPUN! AURELIA IS INTO THE BARRIER! THERE IS FIRE! LOTS OF FIRE!"