Patience // Oscar Piastri

24

The second race weekend of the year brought the F1 grid back to a track they had been at just 4 months ago for the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

While Willow was back for the first time as an F1 driver rather than an F2 one along with Zhou.

And now after three practice sessions around the Jeddah Corniche, the last few minutes of qualifying had arrived and everyone was waiting anxiously to see who would be on pole for tomorrow's race.

"It's a Ferrari 1-2 at the moment. With Leclerc looking for Pole two weeks in a row. But here comes Willow Young, purple in the middle sector." Crofty said excitedly as they watched the American round the final corner into the final straight.

"Willow Young, snatches pole position from Charles Leclerc by 2 hundredths of a second. In just her second Formula One race, Willow Young has put her Red Bull on provisional pole."

"That's pole position Willow. Congratulations. Amazing drive, really something special." Hugh spoke causing Willow to smile as she could hear the excitement in his voice for the young driver.

"Pole position, Willow. Pole position, well done. Amazing drive, really great. Well done." Christian's voice came through the radio in Willow's ear after Max could only improve to 4th.

"Yes! Come on. Yes!" Willow exclaimed excitedly as her smile grew ten times wider.

The American let out a sigh of relief as she continued her drive around the Jeddah Corniche circuit. After the DNF last week to pole position was exactly what Willow needed to prove she deserved her seat.

She continued her cool-down lap on the way back to the pit and waved to the cheering crowd as she drove at a reduced speed.

Willow excitedly pulled into the pit lane and parked her RedBull behind the big number one sign,

She got out of her car with a huge smile on her face that was covered by her crash helmet and went to be weighed by the officials before her post qualifying interviews.

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The good thing about the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was that it didn't take place until 8pm meaning the drivers didn't have to be up so early on race day.

Willow arrived in the paddock around 2pm with the intention of having something to eat then going to find Oscar to see if he wanted to come to Prema to watch the F2 race.

She hadn't heard from Oscar since Bahrain last week besides a random text here and there where she found him being short with her in the messages.

Now the American driver was in the Red Bull hospitality building. She dropped her bag in her driver's room before heading back out to the common area to eat some food.

"Hey, you're early." Claire spoke as she sat down in front of Willow.

"Am I? Thought I was late." Willow replied with a smile sipping her water. "I'm going down to Prema to watch the F2 race."

"Oh cool." Claire nodded in reply. "Is Oscar going with you?"

Claire always knew there was something between the former Prema teammates and she was hoping now that they were no longer teammates they would pursue their feelings.

"Don't know. He's been short with me all week." Willow shrugged her shoulders in reply as she ate.

"What? Why?" Claire wondered.

"No idea. I'm gonna swing by Alpine when I'm done here to see if he's there and talk to him. I've literally done nothing wrong. We went on that track run in Bahrain and I haven't seen him since." The American driver explained as she opened her phone to ring him again.

She pressed the phone to her ear listening to it continuously ring before the familiar beep sounded causing her to roll her eyes.

"You've reached Oscar. Sorry I can't come to the phone, leave me a message and I'll get back to you." Oscar's voicemail said loudly as Willow put it on loud speaker to let Claire here.

"Hello you asshole. I don't know what I've done to annoy you or if you've found a new best friend but I'd appreciate if you stopped ignoring me and tell me yourself. Also I'm coming to Alpine to find you, just a heads up. Bye." Willow spoke as she put the phone back to her ear to speak before hanging up.

"That was aggressive." Claire commented as Willow placed her phone on the table.

"I'm done being nice. I can't think of one thing I've done to annoy him so him ignoring me makes no sense." The Red Bull driver replied as she went back to eating.

"Who's ignoring you?" A familiar voice spoke as two hands were placed on her shoulders causing Willow to jump.

"Max! You almost gave me a heart attack." Willow exclaimed as she turned to see her teammate standing behind her.

"We couldn't have that, could we?" Max said with a smile as he sat down next to her. "Back to my question, who ignoring you?"

"Oscar." Willow replied as she finished eating.

"Oh, trouble in paradise." Max pouted jokingly causing Willow to push him.

"Shut up. He's not my boyfriend, you know that." Willow told the Dutch man.

"Whatever. So why is he ignoring you? What did you do?" Max wondered.

"That's the thing. I've done nothing. Zero. We went on a run Thursday morning and that was it. I didn't see him after that." Willow explained as she stood up with her plate.

"Where are you going now?" Max asked as Willow pushed her chair in.

"To Alpine. To find him and demand he tell me why he's ignoring me all week." Willow replied before walking away.

"She's feisty." Max commented after watching Willow walk out the door after leaving her plate in the wash pile.

"That's our Willow." Claire said with a smile.

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Any ideas why Oscar is ignoring Willow? Or is she just being paranoid? Let me know your thoughts x

-ky❤️