Don't you dare - Lando Norris

12

Lando's POV

I pushed the last few corners and felt the relief of crossing the finish line. I let out a breath and found myself smiling in my helmet. That's p2. I sighed happily and kept driving two laps around the track, waving to the huge crown. Most of them were red dressed, we were in Italy after all.

When I jumped out of the car and got congratulated by my team I felt at home again. After finishing twelfth in Miami I felt like this was really needed. I would've loved to finish first, but beating the Red Bulls this season seemed to be impossible.

I turned around when I felt a clap on my back and found Carlos standing in front of me. I did some handshake with him before getting weighed and grabbing my water bottle. I followed him with my eyes and saw who he approached in the crowd. She stood there waiting for him to embrace her, which he did. I hadn't talked to her since I left rather abruptly from the hospital. Maybe she was mad, or maybe she didn't even put notice in it. Either way I couldn't bring myself to care. I had to focus now. Me and McLaren were on our way back to the top, and I couldn't distract myself with someone I didn't even like.

I waited for Carlos to finish his interview before walking up to David Coulthart who held the interviews. "Lando, great day for you. McLaren seem to be turning a leaf, how do you feel?" I nodded to him with a smile.

"Yeah it's great, I finally felt at ease with the car and I feel like I can understand what I have to do to score the points I want." He nodded.

"And what are your plans for the upcoming races now, hoping for a win?" I tilted my head back and forth in an uncertain nod.

"Not really sure, that might be stretching it a bit. The car's doing great right now but we're not on Red Bulls level yet, far from it. But my plan is just hard focus on racing and trying to improve."

We ended the interview and I walked up the stairs to the cooldown room. Carlos was already standing there and Max arrived right after. We walked together out to the podium and stepped up in the order they announced us.

Once up on the second step I gazed down over the crowd below us. The blue, red and orange were prominent between them. The Dutch and Austrian national anthem plays and we got our trophies in order. I looked down proudly at the McLaren team below when I received mine. They all clapped their hands and smiled.

As my eyes floated they stopped to look at someone who already had their sight set on me. She had a monotone look on her face as she kept looking at me. I winked, trying to lighten the mood. When I did that she turned her head to look at Carlos instead, and then she switched to proud.

I was still at the paddock working out some strategies and looking trough the race with some of the team. Most of the drivers were probably out right now, partying. Honestly I wasn't really feeling it and like I've told myself before, I'm trying to focus on my work. This was something Carlos had a hard time understanding.

"What do you mean you're not coming?" I shrugged to him.

"I have things left to do here, I don't feel obligated to party tonight. I'd like to really focus on improving this year." Carlos sighed disappointed.

"If you change your mind you know where we'll be," he said and placed his hand on my shoulder for a second. I nodded to him with a smile and then returned into the meeting room at McLaren.

It was way past eleven at night when I took a break from work. One of my colleagues went out to get dinner earlier which I now dug into. Finally. I brought up my phone and went onto instagram right away. I watched some stories and some posts after the race today and then went into the group chat we had with the drivers.