Last Man Standing

Chapter 14

She had also tried to get in the car for Baku, making Christian Horner laugh, saying she had a tending to go for the hardest tracks and noticing very well that the tracks she loved most were all street tracks. Though they also terrified her most, the chance of crashing at them bigger than at a Le Castellet, France with its big runoff areas.

Marylinde unstrapped herself and climbed out of the car, shaking both Alessio's and Filippo's hands and giving them a quick hug to say thank you for the car. It had felt amazing all day and Marylinde hoped they would carry it on to the next day.

"Press conference," Freja said, a smile playing on her lips as she handed Marylinde her hat. "Come on. You don't want to miss your first one." She ushered Marylinde to start walking and just before the press conference would start without her, they arrived and Marylinde sat down. She smiled brightly, patting Marcus on the back, congratulating him before looking past him to give Callum a thumbs up who did the same.

"It seems that the news of becoming Red Bull's reserve driver has done you well." Marylinde smiled broadly, nodding before letting a chuckle slip.

"It did, as can be expected. They showed they have confidence in me and my abilities, sometimes that can give you a boost, though I think this is something I can do every time. I don't need a boost to get to this level." She flipped her hair over her shoulder aside with a smirk. "But all jokes aside, I think I showed off my abilities today. Last weekend I got into a bit of bad luck during qualifying while I was onto a stunner of a lap and then got into a bit of a squabble with my car on Sunday. This weekend I am going to do my best to make sure I show you guys why I am here and why Red Bull gave me the opportunity. This was the start of it."

"She's right," Callum said. "She's really fast, she showed it this morning as well, I just think she was quicker to adapt to the new situation than most, but she's at least where she is supposed to be right now."

"And where might that be?" Marylinde asked, challenging, knowing very well what Callum was getting at, but she wasn't going to let him have the satisfaction of making the comment without any response.

"Behind me."

"Oh, but my dear." She smiled sweetly. "You were just lucky. I don't know if your team told you this, but I got stuck behind a bit of traffic for a moment. Also, you got a toe from my teammate, so when calculating that into the times, I would have been faster than both you and Marcus, once again just a bit of bad luck, so don't let it get to your head that I'm supposed to be behind you." She leaned forward to look around Marcus and blew him a kiss. "Love you though." Callum scoffed as the very few present journalists laughed.

"It's going to be a disaster if the two of you ever get to formula one. One press conference I'll never want to be at is one where the two of you are seated there together with Lando, Alex, George and Daniel. That's going to be an enormous mess."

"It's going to be fun Marcus, there's a difference." She winked and the press conference continued, an occasional joke interrupting the questions or answers, but they had fun.

xxx

"Frej?" The Dane nodded. "Can you tell the team I will get to the hotel on my own? I'm going to see Kev for a bit. He said he had something to tell me." Freja nodded. "Thanks, you're my hero."

"Yeah, just go before I change my mind." Marylinde blew her a kiss and left towards the Haas hospitality. Kevin had promised to wait for her there.

"What are you still doing here?" Marylinde looked over her shoulder to see Pierre standing there. A couple of minutes of waiting had never hurt Kevin.

"I could ask you the same thing. My final session was after yours." She grinned. "But I was going to see Kevin."

"He's your cousin right?" Marylinde nodded. "Nice job on the qualifying though. That's immediately my reason for being here this late, I watched it from here and then had a session with Pyry."