back on track

38. the one wih the blast from the past

"Yeah, good night" I told the girl.

I walked the paddock tired next morning, well day. The thoughts had kept me up for, I don't know how long, and I felt a little defeated. The camera hanging around my neck reminded me about the day and the pain ahead of me but I hoped the arm would've gotten a bit better during the week and it wouldn't that much of a problem anymore.

"Hey you" Lando said as he walked up to me. "You okay?" he asked as soon as he got to me and I had yet to react.

"Oh hi, yeah just had trouble sleeping last night" I told him once I got myself back together. "How was the last practice?" I asked him as I had just gotten here.

"It was okay I guess, we'll see soon enough" he grinned still trying to found out if there was something wrong with me. He decided to say nothing just to pull me into a hug that got me little off guard. "You sure you okay?" he asked once he was holding me tight.

"Yeah, I promise" I nodded into his chest.

"Good" he said letting me go. "When you leaving to Finland?" he asked, again making me a little confused.

"Uhm, almost right after the race" I told him.

"Okay" he told me while he clearly was thinking something pretty intensely. "So there is a big chance I won't see you after the race?" he looked down on me.

"Yeah, it's pretty much my que to leave as soon as we got both guys back to debriefing. After that I ran to airport so I make it to my flight" I nodded knowing there was no way I would have time to look for him in that point.

"Okay good to know"

"Anything else?" I asked him now little amused.

"Not really no"

"Okay, well then I gotta go, but good luck out there" I told him with a smile and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking away. Lando on the other hands froze to his place while his cheeks turned red. I just loved to have that kind of impact on someone, knowing really well that he hold the exact same power over me.

The garage gasped as the red car crashed into the barriers in the last turn of the track. It was Carlos and I could feel my heartbeat slowing down once I immediately heard his voice and saw that he was okay. Now I could concentrate back to the fact that the session was red flagged and Carlos was out starting in P15 tomorrow. Daniel had also been out qualified in Q2, which I knew wasn't too good for him or their team but again, gave us a bit better chances in our competition against them.

Charles did a bit better with qualifying finishing in P7 just behind Lando. Still we did expect more from this day, at least to see both our cars in top 10. But I guess we needed to just hope the best for tomorrow.

There wasn't many smiley faces around the garage for the rest of the day as guys worked on Carlos' car and tried to come up with the strategies for tomorrow. Rest of us just tried to focus on our own jobs but for me it meant capturing the disappointed faces all around. Charles seemed to be in okay mood and Carlos after a little while had managed to handle his self-disappointment and was trying to do anything he could to help.

We left back to hotel with Cami rather early and picked something to eat on our way back. It was quiet around the hotel still with people working on the paddock or already in their rooms. And what came to me I was out like a light as soon as my body touched the bed.

.

The atmosphere was totally different coming into race day. The hallways of the hotel were packed with people trying to make it wherever they needed to be and seemed like all of them were busy. Us included. Soon enough we had made our way to the paddock and were almost running towards the Ferrari hospitality. I think the atmosphere was different also with the summer break starting after the race. Everyone here and the factory had earned some time off.