back on track

27. the one with battles on and off track

France weekend turned out to be a really bad weekend for us with zero points as we left home. Next Grand Prix, first of the Austrian Gran Prix was already a better performance from us as we covered fifth and eight places. It was now the beginning of the second Austrian Grand Prix in the Red Bull ring in Spielberg and we were ready for qualifying.

Nothing too exciting in Q1. Q2 on the other hand went on smoothly except both of our cars were eliminated from Q3 which was a pretty big disappointment. I mean we were able to decide our tyres now and we were leaving P10 and P11 so it was okay, if you tried to look it on the positive side. But let me tell you, we didn't. Amazing news outside of out garage was that George had drove his way to Q3 which was something for sure.

The crowd was cheering as Max did his flying lap picking him up on the pole at least for now. Lewis couldn't beat Lando who was in P2 at the moment and Valtteri followed Lewis in P4, but there was still plenty of time. I was cheering for Lando in my mind as our drivers went through the data to see were it all went wrong.

The orange ocean of the people went wild every time they even saw a glimpse of the Red Bull car. It was quite amazing and I couldn't possible imagine what was going through Max's head as he saw the support he was getting.

My heart was beating. Lando got the purple first sector and was now going after the second sector. Four one hundreds of a second was the time between Lando and the pole and now all we needed was the rest of the people still on the lap not be that successful.

Perez can't do anything and goes third.

Lewis fourth.

It was Max on pole and the crowd went wild but what made me even more happy was the other orange on the track who had just driven his best qualifying on his F1 career coming second. I could see the people in McLaren celebrating as the qualifying ended and I couldn't help the little smile that was forming on my lips. Lando and I, well I would say that we were friends again. Even in better terms then before. We talked a lot. Like a lot a lot. There wasn't any tension or bad blood. We just liked each other's company. Everyday I would hear something from him, he might call to tell about his day or send me a good night text or just a random photo of himself like he had habit to do. There was no pressure to be anything and no one rooting for us to be anything like before. We just could be and see for ourselves if this could be something more some day but for now I was very happy with where we were standing.

The night of qualifying went on fast. Carlos and Charles weren't really in a mood to talk so they went to do their own things. I had caught up with very happy Lando and Max as I walked around the paddock. It was great seeing two friends together.

I went to say hi to Yuki and Pierre who had finished nicely in P6 and P7 right behind the two Mercedes and seemed to be quite happy with that.

I hadn't talked to Lewis in a while. I guess I had fallen to a little different group after all than him but I did talk to him quite a lot still. It wasn't like the friendship I had with others where we would mess around each other and hang out and so on. He was more of a big brother to me really. It felt safe to talk to him knowing he would respect my privacy and keep it to himself and I trusted him. It was also nice to know that there was always someone kind of out of my friends that I could go to and they would be happy to talk with me.

I walked past the Mercedes garage and waved at Lewis who was going through the data of the day. I thought I would just pass by but he jogged to me.

"Hey Sof" he said happily.

"Hi Lew" I said back with a smile. "How are you, I haven't seen you in ages."

"At the moment not too great, you saw the quali" he let out a little laugh. "But otherwise I think I've never been better, I mean I enjoy the battle and the challenge on the track but I'm pretty happy off track too" he told me.