Not My Sister - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 8

A/N:

It's the race chapter! If you're reading this, I highly recommend you guys to listen to the instrumental osts I put in the paragraph. I got goosebumps again at how fitting it was, dammit. Enjoy!

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[Nahoko (I Miss You) - The Wind Rises]

"Pace is good. You're the fastest on track." I could hear Xavier's voice, Charles' race engineer, through the headphones.

It was lap 46/57 and Charles was leading the race, but suddenly his voice could be heard, "There was something strange with the engine."

Oh no...

"Okay, copy that. We are checking it." Xavier, Charles' race engineer's voice could be heard.

"There was something strange with the engine! Fuck!" he repeated.

The Ferrari was limping and it hurt me to see him struggling so much. What's happening all of a sudden?

"Driver default CHARLIE 46. We need K2 off, an OK button... and we need SOC9, SOC9." Xavier said to Charles. I didn't understand these codes. Were they trying to launch a rocket or something?

"How many laps left?", Charles breathlessly asked him.

"Multifunction STRAT 6, STRAT 6. Eleven laps to go."

"What's happening?" he sounded so panicked and stressed now.

"We have no H recovery, Hamilton 5 seconds behind. And we need driver default DELTA 15 ON. Then we need driver default DELTA 15 OFF."

My head hurt from listening to this conversation and my heart was racing just like the grand prix itself. I couldn't control it. These feelings were so mixed that if I was a car, I would've spun towards the wall right away.

"There is nothing he can do to stop the inevitable!", the commentator said as the Mercedes zoomed past him with ease.

"9 laps to go, Bottas behind 9 seconds." Xavier said.

So it was Lewis that just went past him. "And follow the number on the dash, fuel numbers on the dash." it was Xavier again.

"Yeah... but, I can't.. Oh my god." Charles sounded devastated. He is currently in 2nd position now.

"Target lap time 38.0," he repeated, "38.0. Gap to-"

"I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't... Believe it, I can't."

My cheeks were wet from tears I didn't realize was flowing. I was such a weakling.

"And 4 laps to go, 4 laps to go." I just saw the second Mercedes overtook him and he's down to P3 now. After the nerve wrecking silence, Xavier spoke again.

"Next car behind is Verstappen, 6.5 seconds."

Oh god, if it goes on like this, he might lose the podium. I felt my stomach twisting. Come on, Charles, you can do it.. I didn't dare to look at the screen again.

"Yellow in turn 1 and 2. Double yellow now."

There's a yellow flag? Turned out it was Hulkenberg and Ricciardo on the grass. I felt like my legs just turned into jelly when they said that the race will finish behind the safety car. Which means the speed was limited and no overtaking was allowed. Thank god!

That gave Charles a chance to keep his position away from Max until the end of the race.

He got lucky.

The fireworks blazed into the night sky in Sakhir. The result was Hamilton, Bottas, and Charles in order. We cheered nonetheless and congratulated each other. "Great job, people. Grazie." I said while hugging some of the staff. My legs felt so weak.