That's Racing Baby | Lando Norris

Chapter 6

All Emilia's practice times at Bahrain looked promising. She had the potential to be on the second row if she had an excellent qualifying session. Emilia got into her car in Q1 feeling confident after yesterday's and that morning's successes.

"We will send you out when there's little traffic so it might be a bit of a wait." John informed. Despite the nerves, Emilia was ready to go. 

"Copy." She replied. Emilia ran through the track turning the steering wheel and pressing buttons without actually moving the car. The track itself she was pretty familiar with as she'd raced on it in F2. However, this car made the circuit entirely different.

It was finally Emilia's go and she revved her engine as she drove out the pit lane. Emilia's warmup lap allowed her to heat her tyres which she did by wiggling the Williams from side to side along the straight. Many times Emilia had to get out the way to allow cars on flying laps to take the racing line. After moving out the way for a Haas, Emilia slowed down getting ready to start her lap.

The British driver pushed hard on the throttle after a few seconds getting her through the last corner and onto the straight. Emilia opened her DRS flap and crossed the start/finish line picking up the extra twelve kilometres per hour DRS offered. Emilia broke sharply hitting the apex of the turn one and going round the outside of turn two and inside of turn three before hitting the next straight. Emilia focused on getting turn seven right as several of people's lap times had been deleted from exceeding track limits at turn eight.

Emilia finished her lap with a 1:29.1 which was enough to get her safely through to Q2. After John told her time, she knew she wouldn't have to go out again. While getting out the way of others, Emilia drove back to the pits where they practiced a pit stop before wheeling her back into the garage where she watched the rest of the session. Part of Emilia wanted to go back out just to become more familiar with the track but she knew it would cost tyres and fuel.

Degradation was particularly high in Bahrain due to the bumpiness of the circuit which was evident from the sparks that came off the car floors as they brushed the circuit. The Williams weren't as low as some of the other cars; the Alpine's especially had to watch their floors. It was just another element that increased the unpredictability of the outcome of qualifying and the race.

Both Williams breezed into Q2 without any big issues. Emilia was sitting in P9 and George with P6. He was definitely outperforming the car but then he had always done that. It made Emilia look worse but it didn't matter to her at that moment; George was a much better driver than she was. Everyone in the Williams garage, as well as Mercedes probably, knew he was World Championship material. With his contract ending at the end of the season, as well as Bottas', he was definitely in contention for Valtteri's seat. Like Emilia, George was part of the Mercedes' Driver Academy, so Mercedes would certainly want him in their car at some point. Emilia could only work hard as she knew she had a long way to go before she was even considered for a seat.

Confidence had always been an issue with Emilia. She knew it was due to the hate she'd suffered from such a young age. Being the only girl out karting, other boys laughed and teased her. She then proved that she was faster by beating them but it didn't seem to stop the comments. Nevertheless, Emilia pushed through it and got to where she was but not easily. The constant torment from other karters from a young age even all the way up to Formula 1 had left Emilia with issues in believing in herself. Emilia tried to not let that bother her.

"You're going out on mediums for the first run but may change to softs if you can't get the time necessary to get into Q3." John stated. Emilia was just ready to get back out again. She shifted in her seat as she tapped her steering wheel nervously. She hoped she wouldn't need the softs and be able to progress on the mediums as that seemed to be the preferred strategy for the team.