This Ain't A Fairytale- Lando Norris

19. This happens once every few lifetimes

The day on Friday seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it they were stood in the garage Saturday afternoon ahead of qualifying.

The rain was pouring, despite it supposedly being the summer, and Hannah and Isla stood in the back of the garage with Cisca watching as Lando got himself ready to head out for qualifying.

The mood in the garage was an unusually nervous one. They'd made some progress with the car, and the practice sessions had gone a little better than expected, but when asked in an interview Lando had stated they'd need nothing short of a miracle to have a good qualifying.

And that had been before the rain descended. The addition of what felt like an entire months worth of rain pouring from the sky all afternoon was far from welcome.

"Good luck." She said quietly as he made his way back over to them, pulling his race suit up from where it had been tied around his waist. "Be careful out there."

"Always." He smiled. "This rain is unbelievable... I'll need a boat if it carries on."

"Are you going to say good luck to Daddy?" Hannah asked.

Isla reached out towards Lando, hands grabbing the collar of his suit as he scooped her out of Hannah's arms. He shifted her onto his hip, wrapping the other arm around Hannah and pulling her in towards him.

"Five minutes." He sighed. "Then I'll go see what on earth this car decides to do in the rain... then we get to watch Mummy sing later!"

"Beautiful day for it." Hannah rolled her eyes.

"It'll stop before then." Lando told her. "They think it'll be starting to dry up if we can make it as far as Q3."

"You'll be great." She smiled. "We know you can do it."

"I'd better go." He sighed. "Be good for mummy, okay?" He said to Isla, peeling her hands off the collar of his race suit to pass her back to Hannah.

"Love you." Hannah said softly, giving him a quick kiss.

"Love you." He grinned, zipping the suit up.

Isla reached out and picked his gloves up off the counter Hannah was leaning against, thrusting them at her dad. He picked up his balaclava, pulling it on and then his helmet, before taking the gloves from Isla. A muffled thank you came from under the helmet, and then he was heading off to get in the car.

They stood and watched for a minute as the mechanics completed their final tasks, the clock on the screen ticking down to the start of the session.

Then the car peeled out of the garage into the pit lane, kicking up the spray behind it.

It was nail biting to watch, the entire garage seemed to be holding their breath as they watched the two papaya cars hurtling around the track. A sense of surprise overwhelming the garage as both of them had made it into Q3 fairly easily, something which had been a distant dream a few weeks ago.

Then the surprise had turned into delirious celebration as the session came to an end and they realised that against all the odds, Lando had somehow managed to qualify P2, with Oscar in P4. Given the way they'd been talking all weekend and the previous few races it really did feel like a miracle.

Lando had returned to the garage deliriously happy, so much so he looked like he'd just managed to win a race. It was the boost he needed, that all the hard work might just be paying off and they'd get their chance to make a comeback.

He skipped back into the garage, wrapping his mum in a hug and then Hannah and Isla.

"That was actually insane." He laughed. "I couldn't even see where I was going around the last corner."