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“Stay calm and keep driving. Yellow flag.” Mel’s voice was as calm as a morning ocean, almost too calm, like she knew she had to work a little harder to make this not seem as bad as it was.
“I’m going back.” I could feel myself start to panic. Images of Luca's car on fire kept circulating through my brain, and it consumed me like the flames were consuming his car. I looked up at the big screens and saw it focused on his car, with no emergency crews in sight.
“Georgia,do notunder any circumstances go to that car. The marshals don’t need to put out two fires.” My head knew that Mel was right, but my heart – my heart couldn’tstandher words.
“I’m not going to leave the man I love in a car that’s fucking burning!” I screamed back into the mic.
“Georgia, this is Isabelle. There is a red flag, now. Come into the pits.” I could picture how that went down in the garage pit wall, Isabelle grabbing Mel and switching the radio over to her headset.
“Is he out of the car?” I cried out. I could feel tears streaming down my face, glad that I was wearing a visor so no one could see my eyes,
“Not yet.” I let out a small sob at Isabelle’s words. “I should have gotten out and helped. What if I lose him,” I blurted into the radio, my voice cracking. “What if I don’t get to tell him how much I love him?”
The words kept tumbling out of me into the radio. In that moment, I didn’t care that the entire world could hear me confess for love for Luca. I didn’t care about the press, sponsors, or even what the FIA would think. I only cared about seeing Luca again so I could tell him that I loved him.
“He knows, Georgie.” Isabelle’s voice was always confident on the radio. I had heard her yell at Marshals, FIA officials, and press officers, but I had never heard this kind of confidence come from her voice. She sounded like a pious follower who had nothing but her convictions to show for her dedication.
Neither of us said anything else into the radio, and I made my way to the garage. I refused to get out of my car, instead opting to watch the TV screens up in the garage from the safety of my seat, hoping that with each glance I would see Luca, but I knew that the film crews didn’t show accidents like this until they knew the driver was out and safe.
Finally, the camera panned to Luca, and I saw movement around his car.He had gotten out.
The screams from the crowd were deafening, and the film crews switched the big screen to show Luca hopping out of the car, running away from his car as quickly as he could.
“Luca is out, GG,” I heard Mel say into my radio. “He’s safe.”
I let out a huge sigh of relief, letting my tense muscles relax. I tried not to watch the accident on the big screens, not able to look at it anymore – the horror would likely stay with me for months, a constant reminder of how dangerous our sport could be. Fortunately, Luca’s car was able to be moved very quickly, and after a few more moments, we restarted the race.
My restart had gone well, and I was back into P2. I was so lost in my thoughts, that I almost missed the radio turn-on, an unfamiliar –and yet familiar– voice came onto the radio.
“You didn’t have to set my car on fire to get P2, Mia Cara. According to the press, I would have let you pass me anyway.” The thick Italian voice let out a sarcastic chuckle, and I instantly knew it was Luca.
“Fuck off!” I grinned in response, shaking my head at Luca's comment. “I’ll keep that in mind for the next race.” I knew no one could see my sly grin, but I didn’t care. Luca would get the joke, even if Isabelle and Lizzie wouldn’t be too pleased about it.
“Oh, and Cara… I love you, too.” My heart leaped at Luca’s words.Lily and Edward were right – Luca did love me.
And I loved him.
I heard some clatter in the background, along with a distant Mel yelling at Luca to get away from the Valkyrie pit wall.
“Sorry, intruders in our camp,” Mel chuckled. “Let’s bring this one home.”
We had ten laps to go, and all I had to do was take on Henri. I had gotten another incredible start after the red flag, dropping Noah fairly quickly as I chased Henri down the straight, keeping the distance within one second, waiting for DRS to be enabled.
As I approached lap sixty-eight, I was able to take P1 from Henri, only for him to take it back from me. Both our tires had the same amount of laps, so it was down to driver skill to determine which Dubois would take home the victory. This back-and-forth happened a few more times, and we traded places another three times.
As I reached the last lap, I put everything into the car – and pushed it to the limit. I was only .3 of a second behind Henri, the front of my car so close to his I could see the small sponsor stickers on the back of the wing as the checkered flag came into view.
In that moment, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time in the car –pure joy. I felt like Henri and I were back in Monaco, just a couple of kids karting as our parents watched on. The battles between us were intense. Our mother said she always knew we’d be in Formula 1 together.
I saw the checkered flag approach, and I gave one last push before crossing the finish line. A second went by, and there was nothing in my ear, nothing in my radio. I waved to Henri, who waved back with a thumbs up as the two of us drove on, finishing our cool-down laps.
“Wow, GG. What a race. P2! You were 1000th of a second behind Henri. FIA had to review the footage. Incredible racing from the two of you. You gave the fans an excellent race. We couldn’t be prouder of you, a well-deserved podium. Lily got P4, a great result.”
“Whooo! That felt amazing, just incredible! Congrats to the team and Lily, solid result.”
“Go ahead and park… I suspect there’s someone waiting to see you,” Mel chuckled into the radio before turning it off.
I parked in the P2 spot, and I saw Henri getting out of his car. I immediately jumped out of mine and ran to my brother, giving him a huge hug. As much as I wanted to be the winner, Henrideservedthis win. He had driven like a champion, and I couldn’t be prouder of my brother. As soon as I was done hugging Henri, I took off my helmet and scanned the crowd, eagerly looking for Luca. It’s as if Henri knew what I was doing because he turned me around and pointed to Luca in the crowd, a smug look on Luca’s face.
