"FP3, let's go." Aurelia hyped up her driver as she entered her room. She had been warming up with Christine and now needed to leave to go down to the garage.
"You ready?" Christine questioned. Emilia nodded confidently in response. Christine knew that her driver had little confidence so she had to figure out a way to instil it into Emilia. She needed the self-assurance to optimise her performance. Not just being sure of her abilities but also certain in the car so she is able to extract the most out of her time.
"Let's go." Emilia strode out of the building with Christine following her carrying her helmet and neck support. George was already present on his side of the garage so Emilia went to greet him. "Morning."
"Morning, how are you?" George was leaning against a worktop chatting to his engineer when Emilia approached him.
"Alright, you?" Emilia replied.
"Looking forward to quali." George responded. Noise increased as engines were fired up so the conversation couldn't really continue but Emilia did manage to fit something in.
"Make sure you get out of my way on my fast laps." Emilia reminded George as she fist bumped him. He chuckled as he put his balaclava on.
The team wanted to wait a while until Emilia had a clean track to send her out on some qualifying simulations. She had a brand-new set of softs to use and low fuel so the data would be pretty accurate. Apart from the fact that Emilia never properly pushed the limits in practice.
Some of the reasoning behind that was that it meant she could always improve. Her time would get faster and she had motivation to do it. It also kept other teams guessing whether she was giving seventy or ninety percent so it gave Williams an advantage because she knew how much she was pushing.
It wasn't uncommon for drivers to do it. Lewis did it a lot. Red Bull would be top of the timings in practices then Lewis would smash a lap time in and stick his Mercedes on pole.
"Tsunoda on a quick lap." John warned and Emilia moved off the racing line. She didn't fancy getting in trouble for ignoring blue flags even if it was only in practice. It would make her unlikable and that's not what she needed right now. "Do another slow lap, there's too much traffic."
"Copy." Emilia replied. She didn't really want to do it but it wouldn't be a reasonable lap time if she couldn't get clean air. It would be alright down the straights but she'd lose a lot of time in the corners from the dirty air coming off the backs of the cars in front.
"George on a quick lap." John notified so Emilia shifted to the right side of the track so George could have the racing line up to turn three. He gave her a thanks as he went past and she held up her middle finger in return.
Eventually, she started her flying lap pressing the throttle all the way down to turn one where she slammed the brakes. The G Force could definitely be felt as she flicked down the gears and turned her car to the right. As soon as she could, she got on the throttle and headed up towards the hill.
At turn three she took a narrow line briefly touching the curb but not fully going onto it. Her exit was a little shaky but she couldn't have lost that much. She opened her DRS again going down the final zone of that lap having been through two already. Turn five was barely a corner; turn six that lead into turn seven which was where you had to be careful not to overrun and dip a wheel in the gravel which resulted in you spinning your car.
Turn eight was where Emilia knew she shouldn't use too much curb either otherwise she could get her lap ruined by the gravel. However here, the gravel was further away so she had more opportunity to keep the car on the red and white stripes and the green curbs before she met the gravel. Emilia smoothly navigated herself through the corners.
There was a small stretch of straight before you hit turn nine where track limits came into play. Emilia kept well within them at the penultimate corner and within them again in the final corner after which she accelerated down the straight completing her lap.
"Good lap. Faster than George." John praised.
"Oh nice." Emilia was surprised that she was quicker than her teammate even if it was only practice. She did another run and the battle between her and George was getting good.
As her fuel load went down, her lap time improved. Although, the tyre wear going up didn't help her lap times. She pitted and switched for a set of mediums which she did a longer run on. After that, Emilia went back onto the softs and did some more qualifying simulations as the team had enough race pace data.
Emilia finished the session P6 with George two tenths behind her at P7. He had come in earlier than she had and wandered over to her side of the garage as she was getting out the car. George waited while Emilia weighed herself.
"Have you come over to tell me where you're going to find these two tenths?" Emilia teased. She probably shouldn't wind George up but she couldn't miss this opportunity.
"I was actually going to congratulate you on beating me." George answered ruffling his hair. "Okay no I wasn't. I'm thinking changing lines for turn three and see if I gain any time there."
"Sorry I didn't quite catch that; did you just say I'm right?" Emilia questioned with a smug grin as they exited the garage.
"I am considering changing lines. I am willing to admit that you are possibly right in this case." George sighed. Emilia clapped her hands gleefully.
"You want to go and get lunch?" Emilia asked.
"As long as you don't rub it in the whole time we're eating." George responded.
"I won't." Emilia promised.
On the way back to her garage, Emilia encountered Lando. She had time to stop and chat and he was by himself.
"Hey." Emilia greeted adjusting her sunglasses.
"I've missed you." Lando replied. He put his hand over his mouth so no one could work out what they were saying because there were a lot of cameras in the paddock.
"Can we do something tonight?" Emilia requested. She and Lando hadn't done anything properly since before France and she missed him.
"Yeah, I have something in mind. Bring trainers." Lando instructed. "Oh and there's a back door behind the McLaren building and if you go up the stairs and take a left my driver room should be there. Come find me after quali."
"I will. Good luck." Emilia patted Lando on the shoulder and wished she could do more but he didn't want to yet.
"You're going to do amazing. I hope not as amazing as me though because I need a good quali." Lando responded.
"No chance babe." Emilia grinned as she went in the other direction to Lando.
Emilia flew through Q1 and was fifth in the timings. She did an impressive 1:04.6. George was not far behind her but it gave her hope that she could outqualify him. Track limits were becoming a problem for other teams. Neither Williams drivers had gotten a lap time deleted as of yet.
"We'll send you out early so you can have an empty track." John informed. Williams liked to do things different. Usually, teams went out twice at the start and right at the end but Williams liked to go out when it meant they were the only ones out on track. They could do their laps uninterrupted and as stress free as you can get. It also gave them time to go again if they really needed it.
Emilia did her first Q2 lap in clean air with George a few seconds in front of her which gave her a bit of a slipstream but not the dirty air in the corners. She crossed the line a tenth slower than George. This looked promising as she could get faster – so could George.
It was a hot day in Austria so the engines needed to be cooled often if they were to work at their optimum. Other cars set times and Emilia slipped into the danger zone. She knew she could improve a lot as she had a bad middle sector where the exit out of one corner affected the next few. George was marginally out of the bottom five but according to John he could extract more out of his lap as well.
Both the Williams went out and completed another lap. They had time to do another and Emilia felt that she went wide, possibly too wide, at turn ten. It was close but her lap time was deleted.
"You have time to do another but you will need to hurry." John calmly told his driver. Emilia had to get out of the way of several cars but crossed the line in time.
Emilia headed down the start/finish straight and broke hard into turn one. She used as little curb as possible turning into the corner as it would slow her down. As soon as she could, she got on the throttle and drove up the hill towards turn three. Emilia tried to do the same thing for turn one as she did for turn three: use a small amount of curb on the inside and avoid the sausage curbs as you leave the corner. The Williams driver did this successfully and opened her DRS down the straight.
Turn four was different to the previous to turn one and three. It was longer and you had to be careful that you didn't dip a wheel in the gravel or use too much curb as it would draw out your lap time. Emilia used a bit more than she should have but it wouldn't lengthen her lap time by much. Turn seven she was careful again not to hit at a very high speed otherwise she would go over the curb and into the gravel.
There were lots of cars getting out her way on their in-laps and although they were all off the racing line, it was still distracting. Emilia could imagine that she wouldn't improve on her time by much just because this lap wasn't going as perfect as it should be. At turn nine, Emilia kept well within track limits and was almost certain she did for turn ten as well. The chequered flag was waving her across the finish line and now all she had to do was wait.
"Currently P10, Stroll coming round the final corner." John commentated. Emilia saw Lance cross the line in her mirrors. He looked wide round the final corner but she was almost at the bottom of the straight so she couldn't tell. "He took P10, you're out."
"Ugh for fucks sake." Emilia groaned with her radio. She really needed a good qualifying because she needed points.
"Lance's time was taken down for track limits on the final corner. You're through to Q3." John corrected.
"Ah yes." Emilia responded. She'd done well to get through with that lap. The lap itself wasn't that bad but it could have been a lot better. Each corner she could have gone into or come out of better – especially turn six through to turn eight.
Q3 started and Emilia made her way out on track for her first run. She would do two as everyone else. Emilia was at the back of a train and needed to at least be in the middle. Being at the back meant there would be a lot of blue flags for people who have finished their lap which distracted her.
Emilia began her lap speeding down the straight into turn one. She avoided the sausage curbs and was quickly on the throttle going upwards into turn three. DRS aided her down the straight where she took the shortest route to lessen her time.
The braking zone came fast and Emilia broke harder than she aimed to meaning she went into the corner slower and probably lost time. It wasn't ideal but it was never going to be a perfect lap, there was always time to be found somewhere. This time it happened to be at turn three.
Unlike her previous Q2 lap, Emilia nailed her second sector and the beginning of the third. The same could be said for the rest of her third sector which wasn't bad either. Emilia couldn't see herself improving much on that.
"Beat George by half a tenth." John knew Emilia would want to know where she was compared to her teammate. She didn't know what he felt like his lap was like so the data wouldn't be that accurate to whether Emilia would finish ahead or not.
Emilia went out again but did not improve on her time. However, George did so he outqualified Emilia for the hundredth time. She was frustrated not to beat him but after all, he is Mr Saturday.
Emilia qualified seventh which was amazing still. She outqualified both McLarens and a Ferrari, the other one was a position ahead of her. Lando was getting a three place grid penalty anyway because of their collision back in France.
Once Emilia had been weighed, she changed her clothes eager to talk to Lando before he went and did his media duties. She snuck in the back of the McLaren building and followed Lando's instructions. Emilia had double checked there weren't any cameras to see her creep into her rival team's building.
McLaren, Williams and Ferrari were all fighting for third in the Championship and it was getting intense. George had been the only thing keeping Williams in this fight the last few races after Emilia's mishaps. There was eight points that split them all with McLaren a point behind Williams who were seven behind Ferrari.
Lando was slumped on the sofa in his driver room when Emilia entered. The door was opened a touch but Emilia knocked anyway. She was quick to get inside once Lando made eye contact with her. The Williams driver didn't really want to be seen in the McLaren building. Especially if she stood out in her blue Williams teamwear. As soon as Lando saw Emilia, he got up off the sofa and Emilia had already shut the door behind her.
Emilia traced the lines on his face that his helmet had left. They ran across his cheekbones and above his eyebrows. She knew they didn't have much time as Aurelia would find her and demand her presence for media duties so she leant in and kissed Lando. Her hands remained on his cheeks as she kissed him. Lando pulled her hips closer to him closing the space between them.
"You are so beautiful." Lando whispered when they'd stopped kissing. Their faces remained close, noses touching.
"I have just got out the car, I am not." Emilia clarified moving away from him and taking a seat on his sofa. She moved her head so Lando could sit down. Emilia reshuffled and put her head on Lando's lap. He tenderly smoothed and untangled her hair with his fingers. "Have I got a double chin?"
"Why does it matter?" Lando questioned smiling.
"Just tell me." Emilia whined.
"No, you don't." Lando softly answered. "Even if you did, you would look stunning anyway."
"I love you." Emilia replied without thinking. She realised what she said and sat up. Lando had an overall shocked expression.
"What did you say?" Lando softly asked.
"I love you." Emilia replied certainly.
"You do?" Lando questioned with a grin growing on his face.
"Without a doubt." Emilia bit her lip unsure on how Lando would take it. However, she was not unsure on her feelings for Lando.
"I love you too." Lando beamed. He leaned in for a kiss but with Emilia having sat up it was awkward. She climbed onto his lap and Lando pulled her in closer. Emilia moved her lips to Lando's neck and a small moan escaped from his mouth.
"Lando we need to –" Charlotte entered the room and immediately stopped. Emilia turned around and saw Lando's PR looking astounded. She didn't think she was going to find another driver on Lando when she walked in the room.
"Um I need to go and do my media duties; I'll see you later." Emilia quickly got up and hurried out the room past an awkward Charlotte. She headed to the media pen where she would probably find an angry Aurelia, which she did.
"Emilia Miller, where have you been?" Aurelia sounded like Molly Weasley in the Chamber of Secrets, minus the English accent.
"Um Lando." Emilia quietly answered. Aurelia rolled her eyes at her driver. "I told Lando I loved him."
"Did you?" Aurelia stopped being agitated and switched to a high pitched squeal. "Did he say it back?"
"Of course he did. Then his PR walked in on us making out." Emilia admitted giggling. Aurelia smacked her hand over her mouth not expecting Emilia to say that.
"Oh no." She laughed. "Please keep this giddiness for your interviews it's nice."
Emilia almost enjoyed media duties. Some of the questions were horrible but she dealt with them well. Lando had improved her mood significantly. She'd seen him in the media pen and made eye contact with him a few times which always made him smile.
They arranged to meet in the lobby at a time and Emilia obviously arrived later than that time. Lando was already there and was in jeans and a quadrant hoodie whereas Emilia was wearing a playsuit. Lando watched Emilia stroll over to him and he gave her a hug keeping it friendly. Lando lead her to his car which was unsurprisingly a McLaren.
"Thank you. Where are we going?" Emilia queried as Lando opened the car door for her.
"You'll find out." Lando winked getting in the driver's side. "I cycled to where we're going the other day, it's a really nice walk." Lando said as he drove.
"We're going for a walk?" Emilia questioned. That might be a bit of a problem.
"We're cheating most of it. We only have to walk the last few hundred metres. That's why I told you to wear trainers at lunch." Lando explained. Emilia may have forgotten he'd said that. "You haven't got trainers have you?"
"Um no." Emilia admitted. "It's fine I can walk in heels. I don't want to ruin what you have planned."
"I didn't really have much planned other than there's a bench at the top." Lando answered. Emilia still protested on walking there. She really shouldn't have. It would have been difficult to bike up it as it was so steep and the ground wasn't particularly smooth so Emilia was struggling. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Emilia huffed out of breath. It was dark which didn't make it any easier. The Williams driver had her flashlight on her phone on helping her know where to step. Lando was also holding her hand all the way up, in his other hand was a hamper.
The couple reached the top and Emilia knew the view was worth it. The sun was peeking over the top of the hills giving off a little bit of light. There were small pockets of glow dotted around representing villages or even a town. Because of the dwellings being on hills, it looked like they were floating partly as the hills were blending in with the surrounding black of the night.
"The view is stunning." Emilia breathed.
"Like you." Lando whispered into her neck.
"This is why I love you." Emilia beamed turning around to kiss him.
"I love you more. Do you want to sit down?" Lando gently asked. Emilia nodded so he got out a picnic blanket and wine glasses with non-alcoholic champagne as they were driving tomorrow. Lando poured and they clinked glasses.
"I overreacted." Emilia sighed breaking the silence.
"Huh?" Lando turned to face Emilia.
"When you danced with that girl, I overreacted." Emilia sighed not looking at Lando.
"I don't think you did." Lando answered.
"I flipped out and didn't talk to you for weeks because you danced with another girl. Yeah it was like close, grindy dancing but you said you didn't kiss her or anything. It was slightly pathetic." Emilia replied. She felt that she acted irrationally and wanted to apologise.
"You had a lot going on. Valtteri, the crash with Valtteri, Toto, Lewis, basically the whole Mercedes crew and then the thing that happened Saturday night." Lando had started laughing but turned serious as he finished the sentence.
"I know a lot happened but that's not an excuse. I'm not usually that dramatic." Emilia responded. Maybe it was the rest of the events that had happened in Baku caused her to overreact but she couldn't place the blame there because it meant the blame wouldn't be on her and she thought it was her fault.
"You can lay the blame elsewhere. You're not at fault for everything. If I was mad for the way you reacted, then you should consider being wrong but you're not. If I'd picked up my phone, then I'd have stopped what happened."
"Lando no. That's not your fault. This isn't even an argument." Emilia finally made eye contact as she sternly addressed the McLaren driver.
"Then you can't blame yourself." Lando said. "I know you don't want me to know but you blame yourself for everything and this is not your fault. You blame it on that man." Lando practically spat the last sentence. He'd sussed her out. Emilia was blaming herself and she'd figured it out.
"Okay, fine." Emilia sighed. She didn't want an argument so she left it. "I wish we could go out in public, like properly."
"We will soon, I promise." Lando answered while running his hands through Emilia's hair. "I can't wait for you to meet my parents and the rest of my family."
"Yeah I'm not sure you'll meet my family. Though I will arrange for us to have lunch with my Grandad when we get back." Emilia decided.
"Then we have the British Grand Prix. It's so soon." Lando pointed out happily.
"Then my Grandad can be in my garage." Emilia started playing with Lando's hands as well as her own.
"I bet you can't wait." Lando smiled.
"I'm beyond excited." Emilia beamed. "You sang our song in FP1." She remembered. She'd seen it on F1's Instagram page except it meant a lot more to her than Lando just singing. He sang their song.
"I did." Lando nodded.
"Thank you." Emilia smiled.
"Anything for you." Lando leant in and kissed Emilia once again. Emilia flipped around so she was facing Lando. His lips moved to her neck making sure hickeys would appear in the morning.
"So we have no issues? We're all good?" Emilia questioned while their noses still touched.
"No issues." Lando confirmed. "Apart from that we're not married." He added.
"No Lando." Emilia laughed.
"Worth a shot." He shrugged grinning.
"Would you want to?" Emilia questioned beaming.
"I am sure yeah. There's still a lot I don't know about you but I don't think anything will change my mind." Lando replied.
"We're not getting married, yet." Emilia answered.
"But would you want to?"
"Maybe later in life. I don't know; I just have a good experience of relationships not working which is absolutely not your fault. I'm scared of falling in love but that didn't seem to stop me." Emilia looked up to Lando as she finished her sentence.
"I won't hurt you ever baby." Lando promised kissing her forehead.
"Again." Emilia teased. "No I know you won't. I trust you." They sat and chatted for a while until they decided it was time for them to leave. Emilia struggled going down the hill but Lando intervened and carried her most of the way down. He had the picnic hamper in his hand as well but still managed to get them both down the hill unscathed. "Do you want to stay in my room tonight?"
"Yeah I do." Lando answered opening Emilia's car door for her. "I might as well ask McLaren to stop giving me a room because I practically live in yours or you live in mine."
"Does McLaren know we're together?" Emilia asked.
"No but I think they have suspicions. Maybe if I didn't talk about you all the time, they would have no clue." Lando grinned.
"Yeah George is getting a bit annoyed with me talking about you." Emilia admitted smiling.
"We won't keep it a secret for much longer I promise love." Lando replied resting the hand not on his steering wheel on Emilia's thigh.
Someone help I don't know how to write characters who are in love hence why they've been arguing quite a bit. If anyone knows how I can improve please let me know. I also had a meltdown over this chapter because it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I was slightly overdramatic and considered deleting the entire story because I can't write people in love, overdramatic I know. I don't think my personal experiences or rather lack of them help but yeah. I refuse to quit for now so you're gonna have to deal with this crap.
Love you all and take care of yourselves <3