one more race// l. norris

Chapter 62

happy 62nd chapter!
we are nearing the end of the book now, only a few chapters to go :)

love you all, and stay safe xXx

Here we go. Last race of the season. 2021 World Championship is decided today. It all comes down to the next 2 hours.

When your sat on the grid waiting, it gets quite nerve wracking, for me anyways. The suspense of waiting and waiting whilst your mechanics are checking the car, or the bosses are discussing things that you can't hear. Or your race engineer talking to you, but your not really listening because you are focusing on the race ahead of you. The suspense isn't fun.

The waiting hits you, until you are told '30 seconds' , then its '15 seconds' then its suddenly eyes on the lights. And that is exactly the position I'm in right now. The five lights began to go out, next thing I know. I'm releasing the clutch and hit the throttle straight away. Starting from P7, you really are in the middle of it. As we headed towards the first corner, I could see something red approaching me from behind. A Ferrari. I put the foot down just enough to keep him behind me, but I couldn't stick it as I headed through turn one, mainly because the Ferrari went round the outside and I had to back out before we collided.

Great. Turn one and I'm already a place down.

Through turns 2, 3 and 4 was a bit shit not gonna lie. But turn five was my chance to gain that place back. DRS hadn't been activated yet, so all I had was my magic overtake button and the magic of the slipstream. Aid then came over the radio and said don't use overtake, just follow the car. So that's what I did. I put my foot down, got close to the car, I think it was Carlos. I moved out to the left, we were alongside for a long part of the straight, but eventually our Red Bull paid off and I dived into Turn five ahead of the Spaniard. Back to P7, small progress is being made.

I didn't lose or gain any places for the next few laps, until lap 12. When I realised I had caught Pierre up in front of me. However, I had caught him up on T13. So I had to wait a few corners before I could pass. I passed the AlphaTauri down the start/finish straight. P6.

"Adrian, who's next?"

"Lando. 2.4 ahead." he replied.

"Copy that." I said, continuing on as normal. I have never let my relationship with that Lando affect our racing. Never. Because otherwise we wouldn't be able to race because our relationship would 'get in the way'.

Rounding turn 5 again, I could see the papaya in front. Norris was still quite a fair way ahead, I knew I had my work cut out for me, mainly because Lando races me the same as he would anyone else on the track, and I'm grateful for that. Two laps later however, I was on his tail. DRS was ready to go when I reached the straight after turn 7, so I hit the button after crossing the line. Lando moved to defend, and he did quite successfully to be fair. But I reacted back and moved to the other side, I was pressing the throttle down as far as it would go. I was in gear 8 by now, and by the next turn we were still side by side. Even going into the corner. Round turn nine we both went, keeping our pace up with each other, and through turn 10 and 11, but just before turn 12, I pulled a Danny Ric and hit the brakes late. Which in turn, let me take the position off of Lando. I knew if I was perfect through these corners I could lose Lando before the next straight. Rounding the final corner, I was safe from Lando's come back attack. I was P5. I had made up two places, so this was looking good. The next car was Charles, he was 5 seconds ahead. I could catch him in 10 laps if I had good raw pace.

A little bit of time had passed, it was now the 38th lap. I was still P5. Charles was in front, it had taken a while for me to catch up, a long time actually. But we knew as a team I would be lucky if I even made up any places, so to be P5 was pretty good.

Charles, however, was a phenomenal driver. So passing him would be very hard. But, it doesn't hurt to give it a go. So thats what I did, after Turn five, in the same place I always overtake, I hit the DRS button and slipstreamed the Ferrari. I snubbed him by turn six, but unexpectedly, he hit back harder, he re-overtook me before we were even half way down the next straight. "Fuck."

Aid came over on the radio, "Don't worry Sky, keep your head screwed on and stay close. Get him next lap."

I hit the large 'OK' button on my steering wheel, kept my foot down and then I stayed on his heels. Next lap around I was getting closer and closer and closer, all until that same back straight Charles got me back on, then I pulled out to the right, knowing I'd have to take the outside round the corner, but I stuck the outside, did a little switcheroo and managed to stick it.

"P4! Get in." I cheered in the car.

Aid chuckled, "Told you that you would get him."

"I know you did, who's next?" I asked, getting a little ahead of myself.

"Woahhh, calm down Morgan. Valtteri is next, but I'm gonna be completely honest, I don't think you're gonna get him, he's 14.5 seconds ahead. But push anyways, you never know." Aid replied.

I nodded in my car, "Okay."

Most of the laps had passed, Adrian was correct, I was never gonna catch him. But on the other hand, P4 from P7 is quite good. I had to give myself a small pat on the back for that. A podium would've been nice to end the season off, but it pleased me to know that Max had won the championship, he had come first, George second, Valtteri third. With me not being on the podium, and Liam taking my place earlier in the season, Mercedes had won the constructors. I was happy for George too, especially after him and Carmen breaking up. He deserved P2 in the championship.

Lando finished P5 in the championship overall, I had just snubbed him to P4. He wouldn't be too happy about that later on!

After parking the car in the pitlane, I jumped out and headed for the crowds in front of me. I managed to worm through and found Max, "WEYYYY! Congratulations world championship!"

We both both jumped into each others embrace, "Thank you so so much Sky."

"Aww, you totally deserve it Max." I smiled, as we let go of each other. Max smiled at me again before he turned around to go and speak to Christian. Then someone embraced me from behind and pressed a kiss to my cheek. I immediately knew who it was.

"Hey Lan." I said, turning around in his arms to face him.

Lando smiled at me, "Well done today. You crushed it, but your overtake on me was a bit sloppy."

I could tell he was teasing me, and Lando knew full well that my overtake on him was fair and quite good. "Oh pipe down Lando. But congrats on P5 in the championship!"

"Thank you baby. But you absolutely crushed it this season! You deserve the world after the way you drove this year." he said, hugging me tightly; pressing a kiss to my lips.

I blushed, going a light pink colour, "Aww thank you Lan, I love you you know that."

"I love you too, can't believe that was the final race of the season." he replied.

I sighed, "I know, neither can I. Anyways, I've got to go, I can see Jules waving at me behind you. I'll see you later, okay?"

Lando nodded, "Mhm, I'll see you later."

I gave him another quick hug, then ran off into the distance to meet Jules for the press interviews. Jules was one for getting in and out of the media pen quickly, as it gets quite hectic in there sometimes.

Many people congratulated me for my position in the drivers' championship, interviewers didn't ask much, they just wanted to know what I had planned for my Christmas break and things like that. I didn't have much going on at Christmas this year, well, Adam and Cisca had been kind enough to let me spend my Christmas with them, seeing as I didn't really have anyone else to spend it with.

Last year I spent it by myself. It was quite nice actually, I made myself a roast turkey, made myself a pudding to go with it. I sat on the sofa and binged my favourite films all day. I really enjoyed myself to be fair. So I was really grateful that Cisca welcomed me in with warm arms, for once in a long time, I was actually looking forward to Christmas this year.