RED LIGHTS | LANDO NORRIS

Part of the Wall

"Oscar!"

The man turned around and smiled as Lia approached him. She moved around the crew to get to his side of the car-which was usually where hers was.

"Good luck," she wished, pulling him into a tight hug. The two had gotten to know each other over the weekend leading up to the race and Lia was grateful it was him in her seat.

"Thanks. I'll try to get up a few positions for you."

She shrugged, "As long as we've got two drivers in this race I'll be happy. Besides, you're already in the points so just maintain it at least."

He nodded and allowed her to strategize with him for the last few minutes. Lia wasn't allowed to drive but Zak allowed her to still be present in the garage and on the pit wall. He found that both Lando and Oscar responded well to her support over the last few days during media and qualifying.

When it came down to the last few minutes before the cars were rolled out, Lia made her way to Lando's side of the garage. He noticed her immediately and paused putting on the rest of his uniform.

"Good luck Norris."

His fist hit hers.

"Feels weird not being able to say it back."

She smiled sadly before pulling him into a hug. They didn't care that they were surrounded by cameras and people. Both of them needed the contact to be assured.

"Be careful out there please."

She felt him nod as he rubbed her back shortly. He pulled away and she left him to focus, grabbing her headset and heading to the pit wall. Zak gave her a sympathetic smile as she sat next to him and Duncan, who was now in charge of Oscar.

The cars and drivers soon rolled out and the race was set to begin. Lia felt worry settle on her chest once more and could hardly look as the lights turned on. Her breath might have stopped when they turned off.

Oscar had started P8 while Lando was in P5. Both of them maintained their positions through the first few laps, even though the rest of the cars were coming and going.

It wasn't until a majority of the cars had made their first pit stops that the positions began to change.

Oscar had come in for a pit stop right behind Charles. Lia turned around in her seat to watch the stops. The latter had trouble getting the right rear tire off but their own driver had an incredibly fast stop, passing by Charles easily.

"Attaboy Oscar!" she cheered.

She turned back towards the engineers and leaned over to peek at their screens. The leaderboard showed that Oscar was now in P7 and on the tail of Alonso. Lando remained in P5 as he had begun with, which ultimately frustrated him.

"Can you advise?"

They could all hear his frustration through the radio. His voice strained from the pressure and the annoyance.

"Get past Perez. Clear air from there."

"What do you think I've been trying to do mate? I can't get past him right now. Give me some fucking data or something!"

Lando's engineer attempted to calm him down whilst reporting any data he could.

Lia watched his onboard side by side the overhead footage of his battle with Checo. The latter was brilliant at defending and refused to let Lando through. But Lia could see the debris begin to fly off his tires more and more-neither of them had pitted yet.

"We should box him now," she advised, leaning over to his engineer, "Get him a lap ahead on new tires when Checo is forced to pit. He has a harder time getting the tires warm quickly than Lando does. Might get him ahead coming out of the exit."