Olivia's pov:
December 2021
The next month flew by, and it's now already December, and soon Christmas which I'm very excited for since Christmas is like my favorite time of the year. It's also the second last race on the calendar, the championship is still not won by either Max or Lewis yet, it's very exciting, but I'm so nervous on Max's behalf, I want this for him so bad..
We are in Saudi Arabia now, where they are driving at Jeddah, which is a new track on the calendar. It's always exciting with a new track, but for me this one is not that exciting since it's called the most dangerous track on the calendar, that makes me a bit nervous.
I arrived at the track with Charles per usual, nothing new there. Charles immediately had a quick "meeting" with his race engineer and Mattia, so I was on my own for a while. I walked around the paddock, everything was familiar but at the same time so different since it was a new place. I liked it here, to be honest.
"Oli, hey!" Max said as he probably saw me wandering around the paddock all alone. "Max" I said and went to give my brother a big hug. "Where's Charles, why are you walking around alone?" he asked and looked at me. "He's at a meeting, and I'm fine. Just exploring the new place" I said and smiled. "Alright then.. Oh do you know if dad will be flying in for the race?" he quickly asked. "He is, what about mom?" I asked.. "Yup, she is as well".. "Great," I said and smiled..
As you probably can guess by now, I don't have the best relationship with my mother, I don't exactly know why tbh. But on the other hand, the relationship with my father is on another level, he is my biggest hero and one of my top five best friends no doubt. Max has the completely opposite relationship with our mother, they are very close. And his relationship with dad is alright, mainly because dad is Max's biggest supporter and has been on his racing journey throughout his life and whole career. They aren't close like dad and I, far from apart. Someone might even say their relationship is a bit toxic..
After a few hours it was time for practice two, after an alright first practice. "Good luck, kill it out there, I love you" I said and gave Charles a kiss before he had to head towards his car. "I will thanks, I love you too" he smiled big, while taking his helmet and walking towards the car.
He got ready and jumped in the car. After a little wait the practice began.. I was once again watching the race from the back of the garage with Nicholas.
Everything went well for everyone, but the traffic out there was crazy. Everyone was complaining over the radio that some were going to slow and the traffic made it too difficult. So some went to the pit again, to wait until the traffic wasn't that crazy.
"Red flag, red flag" was the only thing I heard as I saw the Ferrari car driving into the barrier at high speed. "Is it Charles?!" I asked Nicholas, almost panicking, it didn't look good.. "It's Charles" he answered as we got a closer look at what happened. "Fuck, no!." I said almost about to shed a tear. "It's alright Olivia, he's out" Nicholas said pulling me into a little comforting hug, since he knows how bad I feel whenever Max and Charles crash.
Charles had a massive high speed crash and went directly into the barrier, his car was in pieces and there was debris all over the track, so it was decided the practice wouldn't resume, also since there's just about five minutes left.
I was told by many people that Charles was taken to get checked, and they thought I should go there, so that's what I did. I walked all the way there. Thankfully it wasn't far away from the ferrari garage..
"Can I see him?" I said as there was a woman standing in front of the door. "Sure" she said and let me inside, where the trackside doctors were checking him.
"Charles, how are you?!" I said, worried. "Hi mon amour, I'm fine, I promise. It looked worse than it is" he said while the doctor was doing several checkups on him. He wasn't even surprised that I came directly to him, because he obviously knows I can't stay away when something like this happens. "Good, I was so worried!" I said walking closer to him, he took my hand. "Don't be, I'm fine" he said and smiled at me, which made me calm down for a while..
The rest of the day was quite chilled, since Charles had to relax for the rest of the day even though he is feeling just fine, it's just protocol he needs to follow. We stayed in the hotel room, just the two of us, where we watched a movie, something we do way too often at the moment, but it's just so comfy to stay in, watching a movie and eating some snacks.
The next day was Saturday and qualifying day, as much as I love race days there's just something about qualifying day as well. I really like it!.
First up was practice three which was alright, thankfully the mechanicals at Ferrari are seriously nothing but amazing, they managed to get Charles car ready for practice after his crash yesterday!.
Next up was qualifying, which sometimes can be even more exciting than the race itself, I'm always looking forward to it..
The green lights went out and most of the drivers drove out, trying to set a good first time. It looked like there was a lot of traffic today once again..
Charles complained over the radio that the last sector would be a mess, since there's so many out right now.
But it went fine, the traffic wasn't as bad as everyone predicted, which was great! Charles managed to get through to Q2, which I of course knew he would.
The next session began after a little break. Q2 went just fine, Charles kept setting some good laps in, and I couldn't be happier for him. Max did good too. But unfortunately Carlos didn't make it to Q3. So all focus was now in Charles in Q3!.
Q3 began and almost everyone of the 10 drivers left went out immediately as the green lights turned on. There was a long queue in the pit lane, with Charles leading the way out.
Almost at the end of the session it looked like the pole position was going in Max's way, but then he crashed and hit the wall.. Luckily he was doing just fine, but he lost pole position which I know he is the most frustrated about.. Luckily he managed to set a good first time, so he could finish with p3, which is a good position for tomorrow's race.. Charles finished p4 which is amazing too, especially after the crash yesterday, there were some doubts the car would get ready, but damn Charles showed them how ready the car was.
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Sunday, race day! I had just finished getting ready, and for once I was the one waiting for Charles to finish getting ready, which happens like one out of fifty times. "Come on we gotta go now" I said and peeked my head into the bathroom where he was fixing his hair, as a finishing touch.. "Now you can finally see what I'm dealing with every time we gotta go somewhere" he laughed and ran his fingers through his perfect hair one last time. "Oh, I'm not that slow!" I laughed and turned off the light as we both walked out from the bathroom.. then we drove towards the track, which was close to our hotel.
After a few hours on track it was race time! I had just returned to the Ferrari garage after I just stopped by Max's garage to say hi to both mom and dad, it was great seeing them both.
The five red lights went out, Max tried to push a bit on Lewis and Valtteri, but they both managed to keep Max away. A couple positions back Charles was trying and doing everything in his power to hold Checo behind him, which he managed to do. - Otherwise the start was quite chilled..
"Safety Car!" was being called over everyone's radios. Mick had just crashed in turn 23, the exact same place Charles crashed in practice two. Thankfully Mick was quick to get out of the car that was in a few pieces. He was doing just fine, but was taken to have a few checkups.
After a little while with the drivers driving a few laps being the safety car, it was decided that this crash needed a red flag, and the drivers had to return to pitlane, there was simply just too much debris and other pieces from the car.. So everyone drove into the pit lane and waited for the red flag to be waved off.
After a short wait the race could resume, the start was chaotic. Just as the race began, a red flag was immediately waved once again, since Nikita, George and Checo were out, Checo and Charles made contact which made Checo spin a bit and his front wing was wiped off, but Charles luckily managed to keep going!. And as for George and Nikita they both were out of the race since George had nowhere to go because of the Checo/ Charles collision, which also resulted in Nikita hitting George from the rear. Most importantly everyone was doing fine.
Later doing a virtual safety car Max had to give up his place, but as he was doing it Lewis and Max collided, Lewis ran into the back of Max!.. - Lewis's Mercedes had a broken frontwing.. Their situation was noted by the stewards, and resulted in Max getting a 5 second penalty. Plus their incident was being investigated after the race..
After all fifty laps, Lewis crossed the line as tonight's winner, he deserved it of course, but I just wished that the win had gone in Max's direction.. Max was clearly disappointed and frustrated but as he always says. "it is what it is.." He did everything he could.
With Lewis's win everything changed. The title will be settled next week in Abu Dhabi, the final race. Lewis and Max now have the exact same amount of points, 369,5 points each! I'm even more nervous now, but I'm also so excited tbh. What a grand finale it will be!
After the race I went to talk a bit with Max when he had time, Mom and Dad also joined. We talked about the next race, and clearly Max was already nervous about it, even though he was playing cool, but I know him, he is nervous but excited.
When everything was done for the day I went home to the hotel with Charles. He was not the happiest about the result, but it was fine since he finished with a few points. He finished in seventh place.. A few of the other drivers went to celebrate a bit, nothing crazy, but we just wanted to get some sleep since we both were quite tired and it was late. Plus we have an early flight tomorrow, where we are already flying to Abu Dhabi since there's more to do there, and then Charles can prepare for the last race of this season.
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(1954 words)
I hope you liked the chapter even though it was short.. 🥺
I hope you all had a good night yesterday, and again Happy new year! I promise to write lots of chapters in the next few weeks, since I don't have the busiest schedule. Lots of love from me!🤍🥰