RACE - Lando Norris

82

"Good luck today, Daniella," Toto Wolff approached the Red Bull driver and shook her hand.

"Thanks," she smiled. She was all suited up and ready to get in the car just like all the other nineteen drivers. "But I just feel like today's race is going to be.."

"Chaotic?"

"Yeah," she nervously nodded.

"It will be fine," he smiled. "You and Lewis just have a fair race, don't worry about anything else," and by anything, Daniella knew he meant the championship. He gave a quick smile and pat on her back before leaving to take his seat at the Mercedes garage.

Daniella was too nervous to notice that both George and Max were glaring at the interaction she just had.

Lewis and she exchanged a quick nod before both the championship contenders got in their cars.

***

As predicted the race was chaos from the beginning, yellow flags after yellow flags were waved. Daniella tried her best to overtake Lewis but failed, she only managed to do so after the restart after the red flag and Max was quick to move up to P2 making Lewis lose his position.

"You know what to do," Christian said to Max.

"yeah," Max replied as he continued defending his position against Lewis.

Meanwhile, Daniella's full concentration was on leading the race and on the track. She is well aware that one mistake will cost her a lot.

Max yelled in frustration as Lewis did manage to overtake him and there were only a few laps to go. He really hoped it didn't come to this. But once again Christian's voice rang in his ears, he knows what to do to help his teammate.

He gave everything to get close to the Mercedes to overtake it but when he realized it will be difficult to do so on time he did what he was asked to do.

"So umm..Max got a time penalty," Christian informed Daniella.

"What? Why? What happened?" she asked.

"We will talk about it after the race."

A small part of her knew exactly what happened as she knows her teammate very well but it was not the correct time to dwell on it.

As the Red Bull begins the final lap everyone was almost sure that Daniella will win. Even her heart was beating really fast. The chequered flag was not far away.

"What the..." Daniella gasped as she felt the car lose its balance.

Christian took off his headphone and threw them away as the front tire of Daniella's car blew up, slowing her down and of course, Lewis drove past her.

Daniella stilled tried to cross the chequered flag on time but her car no longer had the pace and Max had no choice but to drive ahead and Valtteri followed to get the third position. Only after that, she managed to reach the flag and finish fourth.

"It's okay Dani," Nate tried to comfort her. "We still have the last race."

Daniella didn't respond as she parked the car and silently sat there for a couple of minutes, trying to catch her breath and thinking about the last lap.

Meanwhile, Lewis was pissed at Max for making contact and trying to get him out of the race but in the end, it was all for nothing as Daniella failed to win.

Even though Red Bull managed to get a podium the team was not happy, but Mercedes on the other hand, was celebrating like they already won the championship as now both Lewis and Daniella's scores were even and the last race will decide the winner.