Red | Charles Leclerc

Chapter 9

The weather in Barcelona was different than I had expected. When you think of Spain, you think hot, hot, hot, but this weekend could possibly be the only weekend that it was cloudy.

The cars were whistling around the track, it was already on lap 53 and I wasn't really aware of what was going on. I could hear Charles speaking to his engineer through the headphones. His voice was calling to me, even when he swore very loudly at Max Verstappen when he clipped his front wing.

Me and Charles hadn't really talked about us. This was the first time I had seen him since that night.

That night was perfect. I couldn't get it out of my head. Everything about it was everything I had ever dreamed of. And Charles made everything better, he distracted me from my text, even though I hadn't told me what was happening, and took me out to dinner before he flew to Italy.

I looked back at the screen again. It was a tight race, with only a few seconds within the top 5. Lewis had lead most of the race, but with new tyres Max was catching him. George was stuck in 3rd, unable to pass Max and Charles and Lando were in 4th and 5th.

They had been at each other's throats for the entire race, overtaking each other, narrowly missing each other every time. The screen above showed the live race footage. It was focusing on Lando and Charles.

Caitlin and Macey had come to the race this weekend as the both loved Barcelona. Ella on the other hand was in England working on her latest murder trial.

Caitlin ☀️

This is intense

I've never seen either of them this competitive before

It's so scary

How do you do this every weekend?

I reckon I've gone into cardiac arrest 50 times since we've been together

That explains it

I closed my phone again. Lap 57, 10 more to go.  My nerves fully kicked in. Every corner and chicane he went through, erupted my heart into a million butterflies. Him and Lando we too close to each other. I could hear the race engineer telling him to watch himself and relax and Charles screaming down the radio back. Lando was getting to him.

They battled through another few corners, Lando just missing Charles' rear tyres.

All of a sudden there were screeches of tyres and the whole Ferrari pit crew leapt up. Both cars were in the gravel, dust was flying everywhere. My heart pounded. The race engineer spoke to Charles through the radio.

"Charles? Are you ok?"

"Fucking idiot! What the hell was he doing? He just didn't move!" Charles yelled back. The safety entered the circuit as both cars were left stranded on the side of the track.

"People are on their way, can you get out the car?" The engineer asked calmly only to be met by Charles' angry screams.

"I'm fine, stupid bastard, could've easily backed off. It was my corner!" Charles' voice was still angry.

I watched him get out the car, throwing his wheel out with him. He walked angrily to the side of the track, where Lando was already waiting. There were lots of angry hand movements between them, so I assumed things hadn't been resolved.

Macey 🐠

Shit's going down here

Lando is saying Charles turned in on him

Very angry mechanics

Caitlin nearly had a heart attack I think

Charles said it was his corner

I think they're both just very angry men

I closed my phone. The Ferrari crew members had settled down again, focusing on Carlos who was now up into 5th battling with Sergio Perez. I wondered what Charles would be like when he got back here.

A few minutes later, Charles walked into the garage, his helmet was still on and his body was tense. He took it off and put it on the floor. He walked passed me and towards his driver's room.

"Charles," I started before he cut me off.

"Not now y/n," he stormed out, leaving me staring at him blankly.

"Don't worry," I turned around to see Isa, Carlos' girlfriend stood behind me. "He's always like this after a crash. Just give him a minute to cool off."

I smiled at her and thanked her. She went back to Carlos's side of the garage to wait for the end of the Grand Prix.