No Regrets, Only Memories

Anti Winner Winner's Club

Maeve

All I wanted today was a good race for Daniel. He needed a good race and he really needed the win. We qualified high enough up that we had potential to end up on a podium and only two cars separated us. If both of us kept our noses clean we could surely do it.

Before the first lap was even over, I was able to gain a place against Kimi with only slight contact. GP gave me the run of who was where when the fifth lap came and I was happy to hear that Daniel had avoided the carnage of the first lap. Stoffel wasn't as lucky, but he wasn't my concern right now. Ahead of me I had two Mercedes and behind me I had Daniel sandwiched between the two Ferraris.

"Hold it, D. We have a long race ahead of us." GP reminded me on the radio as I continued to follow the pair ahead of me.

There was a two and a half second gap to Valtteri ahead of me and he had the same gap to Lewis. I just had to bid my time and wait for the moment to try and skip over the Mercedes. Well I didn't have to wait long.

First it was Nico, blowing an engine and pulling off the track at turn 8. He'd had a lot of DNFs this season and I felt for him, but I had other concerns. There were still two Mercedes ahead of me. Until there wasn't. Valtteri had pulled off onto a safety road out of nowhere. A slight puff of smoke left his engine and I realized he also had a failure.

"Safety car. Box, Box." I blinked, acknowledging the request via the confirm button on my steering wheel.

The next few laps were a blur. They double stacked Daniel and I into the pit stop, going for soft tires. Ferrari did the same thing. However, It looked like there was still a Mercedes on track.

"Lewis did not pit. You are still within his pitstop window." I chuckled at GPs words.

Lewis not pitting was a huge mistake in this scenario. He may have 13 seconds on me, but I had newer tires and my teammate coming up behind me. Daniel and I could both podium today, which would be the icing on the cake. Literally. When he finally did pit, He ended up behind Danial and Kimi. I smiled widely, knowing that this was ours as long as we played a very good game of strategy. My mind ran through our plans, knowing that if I played it safe and babied the tires, we had this.

Daniel made it past Kimi for just a second before getting passed again. I saw him drop into the pit lane for new tires and just hoped the others would need to pit as well. There was always a possibility of

It was around lap 51 that my hopes were shattered.

"Daniel has a failure. We're working on it, but be aware that you might lose your cover." I felt tears come to my eyes.

I had to watch helplessly as I passed his car in lap 54 where he had retired, causing the yellow flag. He walked, head hung down as they started moving his car. If stopping was an option, I'd be there with him in the blink of an eye. It wasn't though, not when the race was still going on. I could be there to support him once I was out of the car.

"Alright, looks like we have a second Mercedes retirement."

GP snapped me out of my trance as I realized I had been blindly driving around the Salzburg track. Dissociating my way through what I would say to Daniel once I was out of the car. The only other questions they seemed to ask were about the tires. Which weren't awesome, but they were going to do what they needed to do, especially with less than ten laps left. It wasn't until three laps from the checkered flag when I realized what this meant.

"Mate, you are one lap from the checkered flag. That is one lap from checkered flag. Everyone's on the wall for you." I chuckled, wondering what everyone meant.