Just Him ❤

82. Silverstone. Pt 2

Another race and another bout of nerves hit Chloe. She really thought she'd be used to this by now but she was so heavily invested in her driver that she doubted that the race day nerves would ever stop. Seb had started from sixth on the grid and had just passed Pierre Gasly to take fifth with Max and Charles ahead of him. She kept her eyes glued to the screens in hospitality, unblinking and in a trance like state, with Antti keeping her company, the work she should have been doing had already been forgotten, she swallowed and licked her lips, her mouth had already gone dry and her right leg was already jiggling up and down.
"You can calm down you know, he'll be fine." Antti reached across and touched her arm and she flinched, startled by him. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump." He looked amused by her.

"Please don't tell me to calm down. I'll be calm after lap fifty-two." She replied as she returned her gaze to the screen.

"You're not normally this bad." He said quietly making her eyes flicker back to him momentarily. She said nothing and they sat in silence for a while as the laps went by. "I'll go and see how Eva, Steef, Isaak and your parents are getting on in the garage." He stood up, eventually realising that he was going to get very little conversation out of Chloe while the race was on. A couple of laps after he'd gone Max and Charles both pitted, releasing Seb and moving him up a couple of places, and she watched anxiously as the two cars started to head to the pit lane exit side by side. Max made the exit first and she shook her head as she realised that Charles had lost a place during his pit stop. Her focus went back to Seb, with a possible one stop strategy she knew he could have a shot at a podium finish, with the two Mercedes scampering away at the front a win was looking unlikely but she knew he'd happy with third after struggling with set-up all weekend. Hitting lap twenty, Antonio Giovinazzi left the track, ending up stuck in a gravel trap and within seconds the safety car was sent out, she sat back in her seat, allowing herself time to breathe and took a long drink from her bottle of water as Seb came into the pits and then left with a new set of hard tyres bolted on. Three laps later the safety car went in and she sat forward in her seat once again as the race restarted, remaining mesmerized by the screens for the next fourteen laps as it became apparent that Seb and Max were going to be fighting for third place. The closer they started to get, the less she found herself blinking and the more her nerves started to jangle and by lap thirty-eight the Dutch driver had got passed Seb.

"Shit!" The word flew out of her mouth before she could stop it as she stood up from her chair, guests and team members were suddenly looking at her though this wasn't the first time they'd seen her like this. Then a moment for Seb, where it all got so much worse as he ran into the back of Max, sending them both off the track, her heart felt as though it had leapt up into her mouth before sinking like a stone. "No! No! No! Oh come on!!" Chloe yelled and slammed her hands down on the table sending the room into a brief silence, everyone was suddenly watching as both cars returned to the track but for Seb the damage was done, his front wing was badly damaged and he limped around to the pits for a new front wing, rejoining the track in seventeenth, and last, place. "Sorry." She mumbled and put her hand up in apology before sitting down. Antti had been right, her nerves were not usually this bad but what had just occurred on track was the reason why, she'd just had a funny feeling about today and until now couldn't put her finger on why. She'd kept it to herself, not wanting to tell Seb or anyone else, the last thing he would want is to hear that she was feeling as though something was going to happen in the race. Her mood dived spectacularly and she could imagine that Seb's mood was doing the same, even more so when it flashed up on the screen that the incident was now under investigation by the stewards. She wasn't sure she wanted to watch the race anymore now, she knew what would happen, she knew deep down that Seb had made a mistake and that the stewards would see that too. Another penalty was looming.

"Thought I'd better come back and see how you are." Antti sat down opposite her, having left their friends in the garage.

"How come you're so calm Antti?" She asked.