Ferrari had performed spectacularly on Saturday as they locked the front row for the Azerbaijan GP race in Baku. Charles stormed to pole position with only 0.039 seconds ahead of Seb, but they both were around 4 tenths seconds clear in front of Mercedes drivers.
Mattia checked on his drivers and their cars at the starting grid. He went to Charles first, giving him motivational words. Charles himself had a very good memory back in 2017 when he won the race superbly there as an F2 driver.
Then, he walked over to Seb who was still talking to Riccardo. He held his shoulder and called him, "Seb."
"Mattia," Seb turned to him.
"Good luck for your race! You should be calm and focused. Lewis is right behind you, but don't let it distract your mind."
"Don't worry, Mattia. He will still be behind me until the finish line," Seb chuckled.
"I like your optimism."
Mattia patted Seb's shoulder before he walked to the pit wall where he would work at during the race. While, Seb had to say a word to Riccardo before he entered his car.
Some minutes later, the drivers had been in their cars, waiting for the race time to come. Charles led the formation lap in front of the rest.
The race started after the lights were out and Charles successfully blocked Seb's way to overtake him. They both turned left, which was the first corner, safely, followed by the rest of the drivers.
Unfortunately, the front left tyre of Daniil's AlphaTauri car locked up and then he hit the barriers on the right side. It ended up with breaking the front wing of his car, but he could still drive, very slowly, with the hope that he could arrive in the pit stop to replace it with the new one.
As the yellow flags were waved by marshals because of that incident, Seb needed to wait patiently until he got the chance to overtake his teammate. When the drivers were free to race again after some debris from Daniil's car had been brought, Seb started attacking Charles.
When he tried to focus on the exact same Ferrari car as his in front of him, Seb had to be aware that Lewis and Valtteri were closely following behind. Riccardo told him on team radio that he could start pushing to make a gap with the Mercedes.
Besides, his race engineer also warned him to be careful to pass Turn 8 or the castle section, which was the most difficult part of the circuit. Charles also had a nightmare there in the previous year as he crashed into the barriers on his flying lap during the qualifying session.
Half of the race had passed, but Seb still failed to take the lead over Charles. Even his effort to overcut him as he intentionally ran longer than him before he pitted was unsuccessful.
After around an hour and 45 minutes, Charles crossed the finish line first which meant that he took his first victory of the season. Seb was behind him around 1.4 seconds. While, Lewis completed the podium place with finishing third.
Seb was quite happy as he proved Mattia that he was right as he could hold Lewis behind him until the end of the race. But he was also unhappy as he hadn't won a race after the last time he won in the Netherlands.
---
As they were delightful with their double podiums, some of team members planned to celebrate it at Bar 19 which was located on the 19th floor of Hotel Fairmont where they were staying at.
Charles had texted Seb to invite him to join. Inside his room, he was sitting on his bed and still holding his phone. He hadn't answered his teammate's message as he wasn't really sure if he wanted to drink.
One glass or two won't hurt. When he started typing his reply, Charles was calling him. "Yes, Charles?"
"Seb, where you at?!"
As it was very noisy, Seb guessed that Charles had been at the bar. "I'm in my room."
"Oh, come on! Let's celebrate our podiums here. Let's have some fun!"
"Does Mattia know?" Seb asked, but then he cursed himself as the question sounded stupid.
"What?! Sorry I can't hear you."
"Oh no, nothing. I'll be there soon."
"Good! We will wait you here."
Seb hung up the phone and quickly changed his clothes. With a black tee, a leather jacket, and a pair of jeans, it was more than enough for him. He sprayed some of his perfume and then put his phone in the pocket before he left.
A few minutes later, Seb entered the bar. He looked around to find some of team members. He saw that Charles had been on the dance floor with his girlfriend, Charlotte. He indeed celebrated his victory in the best way possible.
Seb suddenly smiled miserably. Thinking about himself, he was older than Charles, he hadn't had someone whom he could call as girlfriend, and the future of his racing career was uncertain. It was very contradictory to what his teammate was currently experiencing.
Then, he finally found some mechanics who were having conversation with some drinks on their table. He decided to join them.
"Welcome, Seb!" Luca, one of the team mechanics greeted their driver.
"Hey, guys! May I join here?"
"Of course! What do you want to drink?" the other mechanic, Marco asked while Seb was having his seat.
"I don't want to get drunk here," Seb chuckled at the thought of him being tipsy. "A non-alcoholic cocktail is fine for me."
"Sure. Let me bring some for you," Marco replied before he stood up from his place.
"Thanks."
While waiting for Marco to bring a glass of cocktail for him, Seb talked to Luca and other member who worked as the pit crew of their team.
"Seb, I rarely get a chance to talk to you. But while you are here, I wanna say that how sad we are that you are leaving the team," Alessandro, the pit crew, spoke.
Seb laughed a little. "I can't be there forever, Ale. My time in this team is over. But I'm still very grateful for the opportunity they have given me."
"If you won the title this year, it would be the biggest mistake they have made to replace you."
"Please don't say that. After all, Carlos is a great guy, great driver. I've known him since he was in Red Bull junior program. It would be a nice thing for you all to work with him."
"Yeah, we will see. By the way, are the talks between you and Racing Point true?"
He smiled. "Time will tell. But I don't deny that I sometimes talk to Otmar when we meet in the paddock. Nothing else can be said at the moment."
Marco was back with bringing a glass of cocktail for Seb. "Roy Rogers. Charles has known that you are here and he paid it for you."
Seb received the glass that was handed to him. "Thanks. I should thank him later."
"Yeah, but he's dancing with Charlotte. No one can disturb him at the moment," Marco replied, which made the others laugh.
But it didn't take too long until their laugh faded away as they saw some females who were entering the bar. They looked very familiar from a far. It turned out that they were their colleagues, and one of them was Erika.
She was wearing khaki blazer style tie waist jumpsuit which showed a little bit of her cleavage and also some strappy heels with the same colour as her jumpsuit that beautified her legs.
"Wow! I didn't know that Erika is this gorgeous and sexy," Luca said.
Damn! When Seb thought that he wouldn't meet her again after the race in the afternoon, but it turned out that he was wrong. No matter how sexy she was, but he didn't feel attracted to her.
"Oh, they are coming here!" Marco announced as he saw Erika and the other two approaching them.
Erika was actually surprised to see Seb there. She wouldn't miss the opportunity to get closer to him. "Seb, you are here too?" she asked without greeting the guys first.
Seb nodded. "Yes, Erika. Charles invited me."
Erika still stood there while the other two were already tempted to go to the dance floor. "May I join you all here?"
"Of course!" Luca was the one who replied.
As there was an empty space next to Seb, there was no choice for her but to sit there. She noticed that he shifted a little, but she wouldn't complain. She knew that he always tried to avoid of being close to her.
Marco asked her what she wanted to drink. He had been very nice with giving a helping hand to bring it for her. The opposite of Seb, she wanted an alcoholic drink. She gave him some of her money to buy a bottle of wine.
"I didn't expect that you are here, Seb," Erika started talking to him, repeating her words earlier as she still didn't believe that he would be there.
He shrugged. "I hesitated at first, but Charles phoned me and forced me to come, to celebrate our results today."
Erika couldn't stop admiring his face from the side. His eyelashes were so long and thick, his nose was perfect that she wanted to touch it, his pink lips were slightly parted, then he had stubble which she predicted that he hadn't shaved for more than a week.
"Is there something on my face?" Seb mumbled so that the other guys wouldn't hear him. He knew that she was observing him from the corner of his eye.
It made her blush immediately. But, with the dim light of the room, she guessed that people couldn't see it. "No, nothing." Then, she tried to change the subject. "When will you fly to Montreal?"
"Tuesday evening," he replied, keeping it short. Why did she suddenly talk about job? She must be becoming awkward after being caught, he thought to himself.
Marco was back with bringing a bottle of Bogle Chardonnay. He poured it for Erika, Luca, Ale, and himself, then they drank together. Seb also downed his Roy Rogers.
Erika had drunk two glasses of wine before speaking again to Seb. "Seb, I saw that you seemed unhappy on the podium."
"I guess that it's normal to feel disappointed when you don't win."
He suddenly tensed as she put her hand on his knee. "Don't worry about it. Today is Charles' day, but next Sunday is gonna be yours."
"I hope so. Thanks."
"I guess that you can't wait to get revenge for last year's result," she said before drinking her third one. "That win should've been yours, not Lewis'."
Seb chuckled. "I've moved on from that. But I agree, next weekend I'll try my best to get the victory back there."
"That's the spirit! I like it!"
Seb realized that Erika started being tipsy. She was even more drunk than Luca, Marco, and Ale who had been there before her. And what made him more surprised was that her hand was moving higher slowly to his thigh. Without thinking for too long, he took her hand away of it.
But then he was startled when she tilted her body and leaned against him. He should leave from there as soon as possible. He didn't realize that Luca was looking at him.
"Oh Seb, you and Erika?"
Seb knew that Luca was a little tipsy as well. He didn't mean to tease him, but he still had to stress that Erika and himself weren't a thing. "I swear to God that Erika and I are nothing."
Luca was sober enough to understand that Seb was quite annoyed, even though he didn't know if it was because of his question or Erika. "I'm sorry, Seb, I didn't mean to-"
"No need to apologize, Luca." Then, Seb turned to Marco. "Marco, I'm not responsible of this. You can call her friends if there's something happens to her. And I'm sorry but I have to go now."
"So soon, Seb? But I guess that you haven't met Charles."
Seb hoped that the guys understood that he started feeling uncomfortable there. "I know, but... I have a flight back home tomorrow morning. I'm gonna get in touch with him later. And please, don't tell anyone about it."
Marco nodded. "Alright, Seb. See you in Montreal then."
"Yeah. But, erm, can you please hold her? I can't stand," he laughed.
Marco quickly held Erika's body until Seb could stand up, then he let her lean against that U-shaped sofa. The Italian shook his head as he heard her giggling. Before he left, he shook hands with Marco, Luca, and Ale, and they didn't forget to congratulate him once again for his podium and wish him a safe flight on the following day.
When he was on his way back to his room, he cursed himself for agreeing to come to the bar. He should't let that thing happen again and Erika needed to know that he didn't have any interest on her.
---
*Roy Rogers: a non-alcoholic mixed drink made with cola and grenadine syrup, garnished with a maraschino cherry.
** Bogle Chardonnay: a white-wine from California which tastes vanilla, nutmeg, and guava.