away we go • formula 1

surely not

I woke to the sound of my alarm. „Goedemorgen.", Stoffel said in his husky morning voice. „Guten Morgen.", I turned to face him. „Qualifying day.", he said and wrapped his arms around me. „Yeah. I need to get a fast lap in in FP3. My team wasn't so happy with yesterday." I moaned and rubbed my eyes. Stoffel stood in the door saying nothing. "You look so hot right now.", he said and walked out. Ok? Sometimes he is a weird one.
I pulled out a Toro Rosso shirt and some jeans and went to the kitchen. "You always look hot.", I whispered in his ear and then sat down grinning. "Can you take me to the track today?", I asked. "What kind of question is that? Of course I'll take you.", he pecked my lips and sat down next to me.
The minute I got to the track I felt my nerves kick in. "I feel weird today.", I said to no one in particular. "Don't worry Carolin. If Vettel comes near you again I will have some words with him. I don't want Stoffel to hit him.", Fernando said. I hadn't even noticed him appearing. "Thank you. But it was a one time mistake by both of us. I'm sure.", I said. "I will tell you the secret of Formula 1 racing. It's never your fault.", the Spaniard said and took off.  I got to the garage and felt even more constricted.
"Caro FP3 we want some solid laps.", I heard over radio. "Got it.".
I came back to the pits pissed off. I got out the car and away from the cameras as quickly as possible. "Mist, Mist, Mist.", I screamed and threw my gloves and balaclava through the room. "Die Runden waren ja noch schlechter geworden als gestern.(the laps were even worse than yesterday)". 
I stayed in the room until I was called out again. "FP3 wasn't great. Try to do better.", was everything Markus said before I got in the car. I couldn't explain what was wrong in FP3. I pushed hard and got nothing. 
Q1 started and I got out of the pits first.  The track was already fairly warm and therefore getting the tyres to the right temperature should be alright. "Caro clean lap please.", was transmitted. No shit sherlock. I was getting pissed off. What do they think? That I'm deliberately trying to mess up the laps. My out-lap was pretty good and so I speed up on the straight.
"Fabulous first sector by Zwesper. It looked like she was struggling with this track but she's proofing  us all wrong." 
"New fastest sector time in sector 1 by Lewis Hamilton. But Zwesper is really giving it her all. By far the best lap she has done here. Max Verstappen still in the pits."
"Zwesper sets a time and it's a good one.  Next through is Massa 3.2 seconds behind."
"Hamilton just getting in front of Zwesper by 0.2 seconds. Vettel's facing problems with his car."

"Nice one Caro. Box,box. box,box.", Markus said and sounded way happier than after FP3.
"We are currently second behind Hamilton and in front of Verstappen."

1.HAM
2.ZWE
3.VER
4. BOT
5. RAI
6. RIC
7. ALO
8.OCO
9.MAG
10.VET
11.GRO
12.VAN
13.HUL
14.PER
15.HAR
16.MAS
17.STR
18.ERI
19.SAI
20.WEH

"Who would've thought that this morning.", Markus said, "You can still improve a bit in the middle sector. I'm not sure if the car could go any fast in the first and last sector.". "Ok. I'll try."

Q2 started and I was one of the first ones out again.
I already saw the yellow flags after my outlap. "Perez and Magnussen had contact and spun into the barriers.", I got told. "Is the session gonna be stopped?". "We already contacted Charlie. Stand by.". I drove slowly since we had a virtual safety car. "Caro box. The session is stopped.". I drove into the pits.

All drivers drove back to the pits. Magnussen and Perez did some damage to the track barriers. The team seem tense since the weather forecast predicted heavy gusts of wind later on in the day. And if this break takes more than 20 minutes the driver are going to face this wind in Q3 maybe Q2. Let's listen to Torro Rosso. "The wind is gonna come. Watch turn 4,5,6 and 10. We'll tell you before the gusts reach us.". That was Carolin Zwesper's race engineer Markus Guili. It seems like the work on track will still take some time.

"Can I get something to drink? I feel like a fish drying out.". "There's your water majesty.", Kalle said and bowed. "Idiot.", I must say that I was really sceptical about a PT but Kalle was really nice and fitted in perfectly.
"Caro get ready the track is ready."

Q2 was a bumpy ride the wind picked up by quite a bit. "Caro we are through. P7.", I got told. "Damn. I'll try to do better next lap. Sorry guys.", I was a bit frustrated. Canada really seemed to not be a good track for me.
Q3 now underway with only 10 drivers remaining. Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel, Rainkönnen, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Zwesper, Leclerc, Ocon and Hulkenberg. The Ferraris seem to habe some problems with the heavy wind. „Yo the wind is crazy. It lifted the car.", Max Verstappen everyone. And if Max says it's crazy then it most definitely is.
Only 5 minutes remaining and so far it's Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Bottas, Zwesper with the Ferraris at the end of the bunch. "I think the wind is too strong for another flying lap. The car is almost undriveable.", Vettel transmitts.
Verstappen's last chance to break the record for youngest pole setter in this race. But not with that first sector.
Now it's clear: Lewis Hamilton sets the pole in Montreal.

"Nice one.", I heard Markus say.

P1 Hamilton
P2 Ricciardo
P3 Verstappen
P4 Bottas
P5 Zwesper
P6 Ocon
P7 Leclerc
P8 Hülkenberg
P9 Raikönnen
P10 Vettel

I got out of the car and into the garage. "Thank you for proving us all wrong.", Markus said. "I aim to please.", I grinned. "Very ambitious drive.", Franz Tost said. I was always nervous when he was around. "Helmut was right about the offer. You really are a promising talent.". "Thank you.", I was happy to hear that from the team principal.

"Caro hurry up we need to go to the media pack!", Anais was becoming a bit hectic. "Sorry I just wanna make sure I look alright.", I said. This was the first time I would got there after a qualifying.
"Carolin Zwesper! Fantastische Runde. Was sagen Sie dazu? (Fantastic lap. What's you take on it?)", the reporter of ORF asked. "Danke. Ehrlich gesagt hätte ich gestern noch nicht daran geglaubt. Das Auto war super heute. Danke an mein Team (Thanks. To be honest I didn't think this was possible yesterday. The car was great today. Thanks to my team)", I smiled into the camera. "Haben Sie sich schon an alles hier gewöhnt? (Did you already get used to everything around here?)", he asked. "Naja ich glaube das werde ich nie so ganz. ( Well I don't think that's ever gonna be truly possible), that was the last thing I got questioned.
"Carolin Zwesper the new star in F1. How would you describe this Qualifying?", another reporter asked. "It went better than I thought it would."