Haunting - Daniel Ricciardo

Chapter 9

I am standing in the garage, my eyes fixed to the monitor hanging in front of me. 2 laps to go. Max is leading the race from Kimi Raikkonen.

The entire garage is cheering on Max, his engineers, mechanics and pit crew are standing. Everyone knows what's going to happen. Max Verstappen is going to win a Grand Prix. His first ever Grand Prix. In his first ever race for Red Bull Racing.

The last lap is starting and Kimi is still behind Max. Max is doing an amazing job in keeping him behind. He is defending at the right moments, making it an amazing race.

Sure, he is lucky that both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg retired after 3 corners, but he is the best that is out on the grid. He is better than his team mate and he is better than Ferrari.

The team runs outside, running towards the pitwall to cheer on Max when he crosses the finish line. And he does now. I get a very, very wide smile on my face. I feel proud for some reason.

I walk out of the garage and make my way over to Christian. He is shaking people's hands, while smiling very brightly. He sees me coming, so he turns to me and pulls me in a hug.

"That was amazing! And I thought the hardest part of this all was over" I say jokinly to Christian, who laughs as well.

"Good luck!" he tells me, before he takes me to the podium. I see Hayley standing there as well, with Max's dad. She smiles at me, giving me a hug.

"Congratulations!" I tell her and Jos. Jos has some tears in his eyes, as does Hayley.

"Thank you!" Jos replies. We wait around for a bit before Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max get onto the podium. The Dutch and Austrian national anthems are heard, before they get their trophy's and spray the champagne. I wait until Max walks off of the podium. I make my way to the back of the podium, so I can take him to the press conference.

I see him walking towards me, big smile on his face.

"Max! Congratulations!" I tell him and put my arms around him. He hugs me back.

"Thank you. I can't believe it" Max says, walking with me. He himself has small tears in his eyes.

"You freaking won, Max! Remember your statement, you just proved that you can do it!" I tell him. Max's smile is very wide. I can't blame him, but his cheeks will hurt tonight.

We walk into the press conference and I just sit down, getting ready to write everything down. A lot of people ask Max questions and then someone mentions a record. I quickly write them down myself.

Youngest driver to lead a lap in a race

Youngest driver to finish on the podium

Youngest driver to win a Grand Prix

I smile at them, it makes me even more proud. Although I know that he doesn't care about it. He just cares about his win, not about the records he broke.

--

I am standing in front of my mirror, eyeing myself. I am very insecure about my outfit. I am wearing a long sleeved white shirt, with a big cut, showing much cleavage. The skirt that I am wearing with it is short, but cute. It has flowers on it and it's a high waist one.

I can't believe I let Joelle convince me to wear this. I sigh, walking away from the mirror, before I change out of these clothes. I grab all of my stuff and walk out of my room. I am meeting Joelle in the lobby.

As I'm waiting in the lobby, I decide to post a picture of my outfit on Instagram.