What A Time // Max Verstappen

15

Anna had chosen a green and white little floral dress as it was very hot in Yas Marina. She paired it with a black belt and a simple pair of white trainers.

She was now stood in the Red Bull garage watching as Max got into his car that was now fitted with the new 18 inch Pirelli tyres that would be used from next season on.

There was a mix of young and current drivers testing for the various teams. Red Bull junior driver and Hitech F2 driver Juri Vips was testing alongside Max.

Alfa Romeo has chosen to use their new 2022 line up of drivers. Some teams like McLaren were swapping between their current drivers and IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward.

There was a lot of different faces around the paddock today and Anna was excited to see what a lot of the less experienced drivers could do in an F1 car.

She walked out into the pit lane and looked over the wall as Max came around to start another lap. She leant her hand on the wall and watched Max disappear around turn one.

A few feet away Liam Lawson left the Alpha Tauri garage in search of his Hitech teammate who was testing with Red Bull today. Both drivers were part of the Red Bull junior driver programme and had the chance to test with the two different teams.

Juri had been speaking with one of Checo's engineers and was now standing outside the garage waiting on his turn to test.

His attention was caught by the brown haired girl leaning over the pit wall watching the cars zoom by causing her hair to fly everywhere.

"You're staring." Liam spoke as he finally found his teammate standing outside the Red Bull garage.

"What?" Juri asked pulling his attention away from the girl to the voice of his teammate standing next to him.

"Anna. You were staring at her." Liam clarified with a smile on his face.

"You know her?" Juri questioned, wondering how Liam knew the girl who the Estonian thought was pretty.

"You don't?" Liam replied causing Juri shake his head in reply.

"Oh poor Juri. Poor hopeless and confused Juri." Liam laughed wrapping his arm around his teammate's shoulder. He knew exactly who Anna was and he also knew what would happened to Juri if he tried something.

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Max had been called in for a refuel and a tyre change just after they had sent Juri out onto the track. The world champion got out of his car and grabbed the bottle of water from Bradley.

He walked towards the back of the garage where his best friend was sitting eating an apple scrolling through her phone.

"I'm so glad I asked you to come to testing." Max spoke after taking off his helmet and placing it on one of the benches with his balaclava stuffed inside.

"I saw you were coming and I checked my phone. I have some weird photos from Sunday night." Anna explained as she went to her camera roll and showed Max some of the photos she took.

"Oh god." Max replied before taking a bit gulp of his water.

"I know." Anna said before locking her phone and placing it down. She finished the apple she was eating and threw it in the bin a couple of feet away. "I'm starving."

"You just ate an apple." The Red Bull driver spoke as he pointed to the bin where she threw the core.

"Yeh exactly." Anna replied.

"We'll go get something to eat when I finish." Max assured her before taking another drink of water.

"That's like another 70 laps away." Anna complained with a sigh.

"Don't be such a baby." Max told her before someone called out that the car was refilled and ready to go again. "Gotta go. I love you."

"Yeh, yeh whatever." Anna replied sarcastically before she started to laugh not being able to hold a straight face. "Love you too. Be safe."

"Aren't I always?" Max said with a smile before grabbing his helmet and walking towards his car.

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Juri was called in half way through his lap count for a fresh set of tyres and fuel. He copied Max's actions and got out of his car, removing his helmet. But unlike Max he stood talking to his performance coach from F2.

Anna was stood on Max's side of the garage talking to his press officer about some funny question video the team wanted to do with the two of them.

Anna had no objections and automatically agreed. She then stood talking to Jess for another few minutes before the dark haired woman had to be somewhere and left.

Anna noticed the young Hitech driver standing alone on the other side of the garage after his engineer walked away to talk to Christian.

She walked over to the other side do the garage that was usually occupied by Checo and approached Juri.

"Hey. Great job out there. Keep it up." Anna told him with a smile before walking away once again.

Juri was surprised and shocked at what had just happened. He watched as the brown haired girl disappeared back to the other side of the garage that belonged to Max.

He continued to unconsciously stare at her before he was called back into the car by his engineer for the day.

—————

"She said that to you?" Liam asked as the pair of Hitech drivers walked through the paddock after testing was over.

"Yeh. She just walked over, said it, and left again." Juri explained as he adjusted the bag over his shoulder.

The Young Driver test only took place for one day and the Formula Two drives would then be testing Thursday and Friday after F1 completed their second day of testing tomorrow.

"You still don't know who she is do you?" Liam wondered.

"Not a clue." The Estonian shook his head in reply.

A sudden sound of laughter caught their attention as they both turned their attention in the direction of the Red Bull motorhome a few feet ahead of them.

Anna was laughing at something Max had said as the latter held the door open for her as they walked out of the motorhome and into the paddock.

"They're together?" Juri questioned as they watched them walk towards the swipe gates.

"No." The Kiwi said as he shook his head. "Best friends. Since they were like 4. How did you not know that?"

"How did you?" Juri asked in reply.

"Because the whole world knows. She has comes to every single race weekend since Max started in Formula One. The media thought they were dating for a while before they cleared things up." The youngest of the two Hitech drivers explained.

"Oh. That makes sense." Juri nodded.

"Yeh so if you want my advice, don't ask her out. You're just asking for trouble mate." Liam told his friend before giving him a pat on the back.

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