AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As I started lap twenty-five, I saw the lights of a Blaue Flügel F1 car blink in front of me. Before I knew it, I was passing the driver, and in my wing mirror, I could see his car die on the side of the track.
“Yellow flag, GG, that’s P5 now.”Great, only two more places to go.
“Order is Henri, Luca, Lily, Noah. Noah has something wrong with his front wing, slowing him down. Box Box.”
“Roger.” So Lily had managed to pass Noah –nice one, Lil. I went into the pits, got a fresh set of tires, and then continued on my way.
“Yellow flag will be lifted this lap. Let’s push.”
Within another ten laps, I had gained DRS on Noah and had quickly overtaken his car. I was now sitting P4 in the race, albeit with Noah close behind.
“It’s real hot in here, Mel. Everything okay?” I mumbled into the radio. She agreed to check and quickly came back to confirm that the car was fine and that I was to keep pushing. And push I did because as I reached lap forty, I was on the back of Lily.
“Tell Lily I have the pace; she needs to get out of the way. She’s driving too slow.” I demanded on the radio. Not one of my finer moments, typically team orders came from engineers to drivers and not the other way around, but I knew I could pass my less experienced teammate. Noah was close behind, and I knew if we didn’t pick up the pace, I would use the rest of my tires defending my P4 position.
“Hold,” was all Mel responded.
“No, tell Fiona that either Lily gives me the position or I’ll take it from her.
Isabelle had made it clear when I joined that we were a team of drivers, and while I was the number one driver who had the best hope of winning the World Drivers Championship, Isabelle wasn’t about to take podiums away from the other driver if we could help it. Demanding Lily give me her place wasn’t going to make Fiona or Isabelle happy, but I knew I could get on this podium.I had to get on this podium.
“Lily has been instructed to give you the position on the straight. Go quick.” I didn’t respond, and as we reached the straight, I sailed on by her.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, a little embarrassed by my outburst earlier, but now I was P3, and Luca was only five seconds ahead of me. I could do this.
“And that’s fastest lap, GG.”
I’m not entirely sure what changed, but as I reached lap forty-two, I began to feel my heartbeat slowing down, but I knew it had to be beating fast at this kind of racing speed. As I settled into the race pace chasing Luca, I became acutely aware that I was incredibly hot – and my head felt like someone had just whacked it with a baseball bat. I sucked on my straw, but I knew I was out of water. I had been out since lap thirty. My lips and mouth were completely parched, and yet salty sweat was dripping down my face so quickly that I felt like I was constantly tearing off my visor. I hadn’t felt this nauseous since the very last race of Indy Car when I knew that if I won, I was taking home the championship trophy.
I went to press the radio button, but nothing came out of my mouth. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say anyway. There were only fifteen laps left now, and I could survive another fifteen laps. I put my head down and focused on the road in front. I could see Luca's car up front, and I just needed to close the 2.5-second gap.
“GG, you slowed down last lap more than expected. All ok?” I wanted to respond by telling Mel how I was feeling, but I didn’t have the energy to utter the words, so I just kept driving and uttered an “uh huh” on the radio.
Lap fifty. Seven more to go.
“Gap is now three seconds, GG.” I knew Mel was trying to encourage me to push. We had lost time on Luca. She sounded slightly frustrated, but in that smooth voice that engineers used when they were annoyed with their drivers but didn’t want to distract them. How could I tell her I was just trying to focus on just not passing out? The heat index had to be almost 115 degrees outside.
Lap fifty-six rolled around, and my radio went silent. It had become clear that they had accepted I was going to get P3.
“Last lap, GG, let’s push for the fastest lap. Henri currently holds it.”
I took a deep breath. Fastest lap would give me an extra point, and every point counted at this moment in time. I lifted my visor and put it back down again, enjoying the two seconds of air that swept onto my face.
“Fuck it, Georgia, let’s push,”I mumbled to myself. It was as if time had stopped, and I was the only one on the track. I was flying in what was probably the best lap of a Grand Prix I had ever done. I might have been blinded by the heat, but I would be damned if I was going to let my brother take this one tiny victory from me.
“That’s P8 to P3, GG, very good and fastest lap. Congrats! Unfortunately, Lily DNF’d at Lap fifty-three. Issue with the battery forced her to come in and retire. Race order was Henri, Luca, you.” I silently groaned to myself. Well, at least I didn’t have to feel guilty about passing Lily.
It wasn’t the race win I had hoped for, but I was still fairly proud of myself. I pressed the radio button and went to say something to the team, but as I opened my mouth, a wave of intense nausea hit me – the adrenaline of the race had run out, and I all of a sudden realized how intensely ill I felt.
“Yeah… uh… thank… the team…” I gritted out, just barely. I supposed the team thought I was upset about the race, as no one said anything back to me. Truth be told, I was surprised I could utter anything at all. As I made the last cool-down lap around the track, I entered the pit lane where the third place sign was waiting for me and parked my car.
As I arrived at the parking spot, I could see Henri in the background, celebrating his win on top of his car. I smiled just a little bit.
Bastard did it after all; good for him. I went to pull myself up out of the car so I could go congratulate my brother, but my body didn’t move an inch. I pulled again on the halo, but nothing happened.
Maybe I just needed a quick moment to regroup, I thought to myself. I made sure I was unhooked from the car and tried again.
Shit.
