Racing | C.L (English)

19

.·:*¨༺ NEXT DAY ༻¨*:·.

It has been a day, and Max still hasn't talked to Alice since their last conversation. After she offered her friendship as the only thing she could give Max, he walked away from her. During the interviews, he continued to ignore her, so she followed behind him without saying anything, just observing how Max completed all the interviews as quickly as possible before locking himself in his driver room in the Red Bull garage without a word.

Alice got ready as usual and drove to the paddock. Today was supposed to be her favorite day of the weekend, but given the current state of things in her life, the last thing she wanted to do was go to work. Nevertheless, she had to. There was no way of avoiding it.

Once she arrived at the garage, she waited for Max, who showed up a few minutes after her. He needed to prepare for the driver's parade and then for the race. As usual, she followed him around the paddock in case he needed anything. When it was time for the race, she put on her headphones, which were connected to Max's radio, as expected.

Max started next to Charles, and Checo was starting in the second line next to Carlos, which meant a battle between Ferrari and Red Bull.

All the cars were ready to go. The red lights turned off, signaling the start of the race.

After the formation lap, the race began. Despite her best efforts, Alice couldn't take her eyes off of the rival; she only had eyes for one driver, and the worst part was that he wasn't even on her team. She kept looking at the red car at the beginning of the race. She was almost in awe of how everyone was rooting for the Ferrari team.

That showed that Seb was right when he said, "Everyone is a Ferrari fan," even her. The daughter of Christian Horner had become a Ferrari fan. She was lost in her thoughts that when she looked back at the screen, she saw a red car in the gravel; it was Carlos's car, which was hit by Danny's car, causing Charles to lose his position at the start. He ended up behind Lando and Checo.

The team started celebrating the fantastic start that Red Bull had, but Alice could only think about the promise she made to Carlos during the last race weekend, that he was going to get his first win with Ferrari. Unfortunately, a DNF meant that the great weekend for Carlos ended in disappointment at the first lap. After that incident, there was a safety car, with Max in first, Checo in second, Lando in third, and Charles in fourth.

The team asked Max if he wanted to change tires, but he said it was too risky, which was the same opinion Alice had. Even though the track seemed to be drying quickly, it was still too early.

When the safety car period ended, Charles started fighting to regain his position, but Lando wasn't willing to give it up, and the two drivers continued to battle constantly for third place on the grid. In the earlier laps, Fernando had an incident with Mick, which resulted in a DNF for Fernando on lap 7. The following lap saw Charles manage to pass Lando, and everyone in the crowd celebrated along with Alice, who internally cheered on the driver, even though they hadn't spoken since she pushed him away from her life. For the following laps, the first four continued in the same order, but Charles kept reducing the gap between himself and Checo.

On lap 19, Checo changed his intermediate tires for medium compound ones, followed by most of the drivers, such as George, Valtteri, K-mag, Yuki, Lance, Lewis, Esteban, Latifi, and Mick. The only ones remaining were Max, Charles, and Lando, but that quickly changed because the three of them were called into the pits later on. The difference began there, where Max and Lando had a great stop, while Charles's stop was awful. However, in the end, they ended up in the same positions as before, with Max in first, Checo in second, Charles in third, and Lando in fourth.

The race appeared to be ending like that until Charles went to the pits with 13 laps to go to change to soft compound tires. In the next lap, the team decided to do the same for Checo. Charles's pit stop resulted in Lando gaining the third position, but not for long because Charles quickly reclaimed it, and once again, the first four drivers were the same as before.

At lap 53, Charles was about to pass Checo, having gotten the fastest lap, and everything seemed like he was going to make the pass until he lost control of the car and crashed into the barrier. This was followed by a terrible pit stop, and Charles ended up in ninth place, allowing Lando to take the podium place. It seemed like Lando's first podium of the season.

Alice thought to herself that Ferrari messed up by not trying to go at least one lap without going to the pits, as she watched the red car pass K-mag, with Seb up next.

In the last laps, Charles managed to get to sixth place, but there was nothing he could do to regain the podium position. Alice knew he must be hating himself right now. The team was celebrating P1 and P2, but her eyes were focused on the screen, watching the Ferrari driver, wanting to go and hug him or at least try to make him feel better. However, she knew she needed to do her job.

As she stood behind the team, watching Max's interview, she saw Charles passing behind Max. She knew she was supposed to stay put, but instead, she walked towards Charles, who was headed directly to the Ferrari garage.

Alice approached Charles as he walked towards the Ferrari garage. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should interfere, but she couldn't bear to see him looking so dejected.