32. Magic in Singapore

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Singapore was going to be a weird weekend, Valeria thought. Being in the middle of European races, the whole crew was staying on European time zones, instead of following the local one like they did everywhere else. Going to sleep with the sun up and having lunch at night wasn't the easiest thing to adapt your brain to, but at least Valeria and Pietro were lucky that their job didn't entice being completely on point at all times.

It was Saturday qualifying and Ferrari seemed to have some winning opportunity that weekend. Valeria was walking down the paddock, still trying to wrap her head around what time it actually was when someone stopped right in front of her, by the red bull motorhome.

'ouch.' She joked 'this is not even a good place to stop, follow the red mate' she continued, as the man turned around. 'Oh shitting hell. You're Matt Bellamy! Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I didn't realise it was you'

The muse singer let out a laugh. Valeria had gone fully red and was mumbling some other apology about taking the mick out of a superstar.

'it's OK, I get you might be biased' he joked, pointing at her uniform.

'Just a little' she joked 'what are you doing here? Haven't you got a concert in about 2 hours?' she asked. She was surprised he would be hanging around the paddock merely hours before Muse were due on stage.

'yeah, we do. But I thought I'd sneak in the qualifying before...' he smiled.

'I am Valeria, by the way. Excuse my manners. I'm just in shock. You're Matt Bellamy!'

Matt laughed again 'yes, I am! You said that already' he teased her 'Nice to meet you, Valeria. Will we have the pleasure to see you tonight?'

'well,  I would have loved to but I realised too late you guys were here at the same time as us, so I don't think I can just show up. I would have come to Rome again but we were off to some other GP. I'll have to wait for the next one!'

'Mr. Bellamy, it's time to go' a girl in full Red Bull uniform interrupted them.

'Sorry, my bad.' Valeria apologised, with a smile. 'I should probably go too! Break a leg!'

'Thank you' Matt told her with a smile, as he was escorted towards the garage by the Red Bull lady.

Valeria checked her watch. It was probably time for her to go into the garage too. She joined Pietro, at the back of the garage, telling him about her encounter with Muse's singer.

'Jesus, you're dating an F1 driver but you still get pretty starstruck by celebrities. Calm down, you're speaking at a million miles per hour'

'you don't understand! I had a chat with Matt Bellamy. Matt! Bellamy! From Muse! I spoke to him, in real life!'

'Jesus' Pietro huffed again. 'concentrate on work, please!'

'No, look! He's there!' she pointed at the screen. The camera had just panned out on him watching q1 in the Red Bull garage and then to her and Pietro, she was excitedly pointing at the screen, but stopped as soon as she was in the frame, pretending nothing had happened.

'Smooth' Domenico shouted from the opposite side of the garage.

'Do one!' she shouted back.

By the end of Q3, even if Seb had topped the previous two stints, Charles had ended up on pole, with Lewis in p2 and Seb in p3.

Valeria walked out of the garage, looking for Nico.

'Newbie' he greeted her.

'hello, honey' she joked.

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