Gasoline - [Charles Leclerc]

2.7

"I really hope he's not going to he squished in the first turn". Edrice muttered to Lorenzo while the cars did their formation lap around Monte Carlo. "I think he'll hold back". Lorenzo thoughtfully responded, his fingers leaning against his chin and his headphones on his head. Edrice leaned her arms on the balustrade in front of her, looking up at the screen above them. The bolides lined up on the grid and the five lights were flickering off one for one. Edrice held her breath when they all moved away and her focus was on Charles in the back. His mood hadn't been very bright yesterday because of the mistake his engineers made, they calculated wrongly if he was safe in Q1 or not. Edrice was afraid he'd want to win too dearly and she hoped he wouldn't ruin his race for himself. The streets were narrow and the thousands of horsepower made Monaco shake as they exited the tunnel.

Charles was close to his next overtaking victim and he cursed on himself as he didn't manage to brake deeply into Rascasse. His fingers tightened around the steering wheel and his teeth gritted together. It was just the fourth lap now. "Charles, head down, head down, don't get fed up". "Be quiet". He snarled over the board radio. After yesterday, he didn't want to hear them talking to him on the radio. Edrice and Lorenzo shared a look when they watched their brother and boyfriend race over the track of Monaco, getting more frustrated and eager to cut through the midfield each lap that passed. They clapped when he made a flawless move in Rascasse next and the team was slowly having faith in the race again. Charles was confident he could try the same move again on the Renault of Nico Hülkenberg, but this time he clipped the wall and bumped into the German.

"That's your tyre, Charles". His engineer said and he didn't respond. He looked in his mirror while he saw his tyre getting worse with each meter that passed. "Why is he driving this quick? His tyre will destroy the whole floor". Edrice said, her eyebrows knitting together. "He doesn't want to give up". Lorenzo muttered and shook his head as the camera showed slow motion fragments of the floor getting torn apart from the tyre strands that were loose. Charles came into the pitlane for new tyres and he was back to last again. Due to his floor being that damaged and slashed apart, he barely had any grip on the street circuit. Lorenzo shook his head and Pascale looked rather sad for her son that his home grand prix was going to end on the tenth lap. Charles came back into the pitlane after a lap on his new tires and Edrice saw his car standing in front of his pit box. Engineers shook their head and everyone knew his race was over. Charles pried his fingers out of his gloves and placed them under his halo.

His mechanics unbuckled his security belts and Charles hoisted himself out of the car. He kept his helmet on while he brushed passed everyone who wanted to say something to him. Edrice didn't do an attempt to follow him, knowing he needed a moment for himself. She continued to watch the race with his family, but she was visibly bored as her boyfriend was not racing anymore. The last laps became a bit more exciting as Hamilton and Verstappen battled, but that was about it. Since the Dutchman had a five second penalty, Seb moved up to P2 and Edrice went along with the mechanics to celebrate the podium of Ferrari. Charles was still sulking about it in his driver's room. His arms and hands were a bit sore from how hard he had been clenching the steer it wheel, so Andrea had put him down on the bed to massage him and loosen his tense muscles. Charles got dressed into his Ferrari teamwear to get to the media square, before more drivers could enter. He told the journalist about how disappointed he was that his race had to end like this and that it maybe wouldn't have happened if the team hadn't made the mistake in the qualifying session.

Charles was glad his media duties were over and he could leave the circuit to get home. "Where's Edrice?". He asked Andrea. "I'm not sure, I saw her with Nico's girl and Kelly Piquet after the race. She was at the podium with the team before". Charles' eyebrows rose and he nodded slowly. "I'll leave her be". He said. "You don't want to wait for her?". Andrea asked while holding onto his bike. "She's not waiting for me either". Charles shrugged and got onto his bike. Andrea was a bit surprised by his reaction, yet he was sure this was just the after race adrenaline was saying this. He just hoped Edrice wasn't going to be worried about him. And Edrice wasn't, she just wanted to give him some space while she had a drink with a Kelly and Egle. She had send him a text to let him know where she was and arrived back at Charles' apartment. She opened the door and made her way inside, finding him seated on the balcony, his arms leaning on the balustrade while he stared away.