That's Racing Baby | Lando Norris

Chapter 84: Race Twenty-Two

"No I'm just surprised Toto wanted to do it. He has enough stress in his life." Lewis admitted.

"I'm not that stressful to manage." Emilia defended. She looked for Toto for support.

"You are the most difficult to manage out of all the junior drivers." Toto sighed. "But for the talent you have, it is definitely worth it." Toto didn't hand out compliments to Emilia often so she appreciated in rather even if it came with the comment beforehand.

"Thanks Toto." Emilia smiled. "I'll try not to crash into Lewis today if but he did qualify quite a bit ahead of me as per. Do you want me to like let him past if he ends up behind me?" Emilia questioned quietly.

"I would like you to not do anything that will raise my heart rate." Toto answered.

"Okay cool. I have to go to the track, I'll see you later and good luck." Emilia said and got up having finished her food. Toto's response was a clear enough response.

Soon enough, it was race time. Emilia was in her grid spot doing her little shuffle while the rest of the grid formed. The red lights glared at the stationary cars then turned off all at once and the stationary cars became mobile. Emilia knew this first corner was going to be a mess. There were cars everywhere and there was a slim chance of all twenty cars going go unscathed. Emilia was determined to make sure she was not one of them.

The two cars either side of Emilia, once of which was Lando, were moving closer towards her. But Lando was hit from behind so Emilia steered to dodge being caught in the crossfire. She continued on driving round the second corner and through the third when a red flag was brought out.

Emilia tried to remain calm as she knew Lando had crashed but it didn't look bad. Still, she was concerned about a second impact.

"Lando's okay." John informed. He didn't have to give her that information but Emilia was so glad to hear it.

"Thank you John." Emilia breathed a sigh of relief.

During the red flag, Emilia talked with her engineers and kept her mind sharp with her trainer so she would be ready to race whenever the signal was given. It was a while as there were five cars out of the race and it took time to remove them all and repair the barriers. This also meant George was able to gain places. It put Williams in a good position for the Constructor's Championship.

The ten minute warning was given and Emilia got back in her car trying to focus on the race. She took her deep breaths clearing her mind of everything that wouldn't help her excel in this race. The grid lined up again and Emilia was hoping this start would go smoother. Her wishes came true and all fifteen cars made it out the first chicane without any crashes.

It continued like this and Emilia stayed in P5 but this became the problem. She couldn't pass the car in front of her. Emilia was stuck behind Valtteri Bottas and she couldn't get close enough to overtake. Being in his dirty air was hurting her tyres and heating up her engine.

"What do we do about this? I can't get past." Emilia said to John.

"We want to wait a bit to see if there's a safety car." John responded.

"I'm not progressing anywhere." Emilia pointed out. She was getting frustrated though P5 would be perfectly fine, but that's not how F1 drivers work. They always wanted to improve and do better.

"Copy." John replied which only annoyed Emilia more. She could understand why they wanted to wait but Emilia didn't want to be stuck behind the Mercedes anymore. However, it was the penultimate race of the season, not losing out on points was crucial especially when it meant pulling a risky move against a Mercedes.