That's Racing Baby | Lando Norris

Chapter 16

Getting back into the car at Spain was a lot scarier than Emilia anticipated despite having spent several hours on the simulator at the Williams Headquarters. Initially, Emilia was actually afraid to get in the car though she had a helmet on so no one could see her fear but her engineer sensed it and calmly talked her through the set up and her first lap.

After that, she was back to normal. There were hesitations in the high speed corners but that was all ironed out by the end of FP3. Emilia placed fourth fastest in the final session which put her in a good position for qualifying.

Qualifying came around quickly and the two Williams flew through Q1 and Q2 without any major problems. There was a moment of doubt for Emilia as she had been in the bottom ten after the chequered flag but she crossed the line excelling to second with only Lewis ahead of her.

The break between each round of qualifying was small meaning Emilia wasn't able to absorb as much information as she wanted. She was desperate to get on the second row of the grid with her practice times showing it was possible. Her pace was strong, better than her teammate's, and the determination for a podium only making it greater.

Emilia went out a minute into Q3 with the aim to set two flying laps as Williams had saved softs for qualifying. There were others cars out on track and George flew past on a flying lap having been released from the pits earlier than she had. Her warm up lap was ordinary with no drama thankfully.

The British driver opened the DRS as she hit the main straight to start her first flying lap. The straight was unoccupied leaving Emilia alone and no dirty air into the first corner. It swooped round into the second and she accelerated once she had come out only to have to take her foot off the pedal as she drove round the long third corner.

As Emilia hit the fourth corner, she experienced a bit of oversteer that wasn't enough to compromise her lap but it sent her wider than she had wanted to go. It took a twitch of the steering wheel to get her back on the racing line hoping the momentary lapse wouldn't lead her to drop positions.

There were more windy corners at the beginning of the second sector which Emilia manoeuvred through before entering the second DRS straight of the track. A few cars moved off the racing line not wanting to hinder her quick lap.

From turn ten to turn fifteen, there was little need for the accelerator as most of them were slow corners. However, following turn fifteen, the opportunity to smash the accelerator arose with no need to break just turn the steering wheel at turn sixteen and then cross the line.

"Provisional pole. Keep it up." John encouraged. She had seen the cars that were passing her and knew she hadn't been beaten any Mercs or Red Bulls though she had set a faster time than George who was widely known as Mr Saturday. He hadn't been outqualified by a Williams teammate ever so beating him would be outstanding for Emilia. However, there were still seven minutes of the session to go.

Emilia came back into the garage for a few minutes before being let out into a train of cars. They were trying to overtake her just to make sure they got across the line prior to the chequered flag being waved but Emilia thought there would be more than enough time. John emphasised that the cars weren't allowed to pass her. She stood her ground and started her final lap.

"Did I cross the line in time?" Emilia asked as she zoomed down the straight DRS wide open.

"Can confirm." The reply was short leaving her to concentrate on the lap.

Emilia glided through the first two sectors having no difficulty at all. She nailed the corners she had previously lost time at and broke later than she thought was possible and somehow managing to not go wide. The chequered flag was there as she crossed the line and put her car into cool mode.