Lock Up ⏐Charles Leclerc

Chapter 58

Happy 90k and welcome to part 1 of Monza 🤪

Enjoy!

*****

It was qualifying today and I couldn't believe the amount of people that have showed up.

I was watching from Ferrari today with Aurora and Leo and I'm thankful that no one has said anything about it, already accepting that I was friends with the drivers which would explain me watching from one garage to the other. Even though I was far from the crowd, you could feel the energy the tifosi is giving. The stands were dominated by the color red, be it from their shirts, caps, or flags.

This was Ferrari.

I briefly saw Chiara in the garage, standing beside Isa who looked like she wanted to run away from the model. I didn't spare Chiara a look and it's a good thing she didn't approach me either. I have the mechanics and the nonstop cameras rotating around the garage to thank for that. The drivers were on an out lap since the first session has just begun and I watched as Carlos drove out of the garage followed by Charles. Ferrari was confident today that they would start on at least the second row for the race tomorrow based on the data they've received from free practice.

Ace's name climbed up to the top of the times followed by Max. George was in third while Daniel was in fourth, only a few tenths ahead of Checo. The camera focused on the two Ferraris with Carlos setting a lap time first since Charles pulled away from him to avoid any traffic. The garage cheered as Carlos placed P1 and after a few more seconds, he moved to P2 as Charles set the fastest time. They did another lap to improve their time and I watched as only the names of the last ten drivers interchanged, the top ten untouchable.

The two Ferrari drivers went back to the garage as they waited for the first session to end but they were out once again for the second session. This was a battle for the midfield teams and I winced when Yuki spun during one of the turns, having to wait for a few seconds to have some clear space. There was a bit of damage on his front wing when it clipped the curb which contributed heavily to the time he put in during the last minute of the session. Unfortunately, he only achieved P11, not making it into the third session.

Max was currently on pole by the time the second session ended but it was obvious in the Ferrari garage that this wasn't going to last. "The tifosi are going wild." Aurora whispered to me when Charles' name was flashing purple for the first two sectors. Cheers erupted when he crossed the line and replaced Max in P1, setting a time of 1:21:018 which broke the record as the fastest lap in Monza. No one was able to beat his time no matter how many times they did a hot lap and this energized the tifosi even more. Carlos got P2, giving Ferrari a front row start tomorrow, while Ace was in P3.

Charles and Carlos were all smiles as they lined up their cars on the grid, waving at the fans in the stands. The mechanics were clapping themselves on the back at the success in qualifying when Isa moved over to us, breathing a sigh of relief as she removed her headphones.

"Everything alright?" I chuckled, offering her a bottle of water from the pack that was given to us.

"I want to say no but I don't want to be mean." She said, glancing at Chiara who was taking a picture of the current standings shown on the monitor. She was most likely going to post that on Instagram in just a few seconds. Isa drank more of her water before closing it. "I'm a kind person but when it comes to people who continue to talk my ear off, my patience runs thin."