malicious | max verstappen

thirty.

I got situated inside the car, seat belts buckled and everything. The mechanics didn't do a double check on the seatbelts like they usually did which was odd but I figured they had better things to so now that Lewis was two points short of the lead.

After lining up following the formation lap, it was lights out for the fourteenth race of the season. 9 more to go.

I had a decent start. I wasn't able to stick with the top 3 since I was busy fighting off Checo who was all over the back of my car. Eventually, though, after 13 laps of intense fighting back and forth, Checo locked up allowing space for a gap between us and I was able to catch up to the rest of the pack.

It started to get gloomy and it was likely it would rain sooner than later. I could see Lewis and Lando fight for first in the distance.

"Pit for inters?" My engineer asked me once it started to drizzle.

"How heavy are we expecting the rain to be?"

"50 to 70%."

"Alright, inters it is." I confirmed and one lap later I had fresh tyres. It was like I changed tyres at the perfect time since the rain started to get heavier and heavier.

I was out in P2. Lewis and Max pitted after me but I was surprised to see Lando still out with soft tyres when everyone else was pitting.

A few laps later, I was still behind Lando. His car was slowly loosing more and more grip but I couldn't get past since he was all over the place and his car was spraying an insane amount of water everywhere. Before I knew it, Lewis passed me. So I dropped down to P3, with Max right on my tail.

We started approaching backmarkers. Lando and Lewis passed them in a breeze but then suddenly as I was passing by, the Haas of Nikita Mazepin cut me off, accidentally chipping off a piece of my front wing, making my car loose balance and start spinning in the process. It wasn't convenient that Max was right behind me so before he could react, the front of his car crashed into my side. In a split second, the three of us flew into a barrier. What the flying fuck is Nikita thinking cutting me off like that? What the fuck was his problem?

I furiously unbuckled the nearly loose seatbelts and got out of the cockpit, angrily walking towards Mazepin's car.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" I yelled at him while he watched me, unamused. He ignored me and started to get out of his car. "You're literally at the back of the grid, you don't even matter so don't come ruining my race because yours isn't going the way you want it, asshole."

He simply walked away from me, getting onto a moped one of the marshals was driving back to the pits. I scoffed and raised my hands in the air.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now, Elyse?!" Max's aggravated voice filled my ears. "You just cost me the championship lead!"

It was my turn to be aggravated, "Oh, really? My bad, golden boy, you know what they say— what goes around comes around."

He ripped his helmet off, "You ruin everything, I swear. Just because you aren't fighting for the championship anymore doesn't mean you have to ruin it for me!" He yelled at me, "Remember when you called me malicious? Turns out you were just describing yourself."

I didn't react. I just smiled and nodded, before sarcastically saying, "How kind of you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me."

As if on cue, I took another moped back to the pits. When the Mercedes' garage was in view, another pit in my stomach settled and I was reminded of yet another bad result. Two DNF's in a row. Great stuff.

I put on my helmet once again when we neared the garage, hiding from all the looks of disappointment I was receiving left and right.

I locked myself in my room and did my usual routine of showering and changing into fresh clothes, all while hearing fireworks go off and the team cheering then silence— probably heading to the podium celebrations. I mentally prepared myself for interviews since Hailey was nowhere to be found.