Romeo and Juliet || Carlos Sainz

The overtake

Before every race, all the drivers have to attend a press conference, where the journalists ask them a lot of questions about the race but sometimes if they know something spicy about the drivers, they like asking uncomfortable questions.
The morning press conference was with Zhou, Max and Carlos. Max sat in the middle of the other two drivers and before taking a seat, Max and Carlos looked at each other without saying a word. It was quite strange since everyone in the grid is very nice to each other and the climate is very relaxed and confidential.

"My question is for Max" said a journalist. Max nodded his head "We know you have a new track engineer this year, and she's Horner's daughter, correct?" Max nodded again. "Good, how's going with her? Do you like working with her? How's the feeling between you two?"
"Well... I've known Y/n for four years now" his tone of voice was calm and confident "so we are very close and mentally connected" a little smile came up to his face, like he was feeling very good saying those words in front of Carlos.  

Carlos turned his head looking at him in silence. His legs were shaking and he held his hands tight to each other nervously. After that text, he was very disappointed and angry about y/n and hearing those words from Max made him angrier than before. His gaze towards Max was mad but at the same time sad, like he didn't want to listen to any other word further.

"We usually stay up all night together, talking about new strategies or just having fun together. There's a beautiful relationship between us" said Max without looking at Carlos. He felt superior and he knew what he was doing.
"Good for you" whispered Carlos but his microphone was on so everybody heard it.
"Oh thank you, Carlos. That's how we work on Red Bull. There must be a nice atmosphere between pilots and technics, and I think this year is a good year for us. Do you and your track engineer work like us?" 
Carlos looked down smiling, he was getting more and more nervous but he had to cover it, he couldn't let him make fun of him in this way.
"I think you should worry about your race, Max, not about mine" he tried his best not to punch him in the face, it was very hard but he had to stay focused on the race and nothing else. The championship had just begun and he was in a very good position. These stupid games were childish but at the same time he knew Max got him by the balls at that moment. It pissed off Carlos very much and he tried to cover everything with the fakest smile he could ever do.

But suddenly Max, who knew he was winning this particular and hidden game, kept on talking with Carlos, like everybody else in that room disappeared. Zhou was looking at them speechless, without understanding a word they were saying.
"Are you ready to lose?" said Max in an annoying voice. Carlos stopped for a second, he couldn't believe he said that phrase for real, he took it personally, there was nothing related to race, of course. It was a totally private diss between them. Carlos knew that Max wanted to provoke him in every possible way, but he was superior to this childish attitude. Carlos smiled again, he didn't look at Max but focused on a point at the end of the room, he counted to ten and said: 
"mh, we will see". That was the only thing he could say without using very bad words towards him. His fingers moved very nervously on the table, everybody in that room could feel the tension that Max created.
After the press conference, Carlos went away very fast to his box, without saying goodbye to anyone, while Max stopped a little bit with the journalists.  

Y/N POV:

The day of the race had arrived and she felt very confident about the work she had done for Max. They haven't seen him very much that week since Max stayed in Monaco and Y/n returned home in London. They worked separately most of the time that week and for y/n it was perfect. She didn't want to see Max and she enjoyed her all-alone work session. 

When she arrived at the paddock, people looked at her in a strange way, or, at least, it was the sensation y/n had as soon as she arrived in the pitlane. She couldn't understand what was going on, she smiled politely like every weekend to the mechanics and Red Bull workers, then she waited for Max to arrive.

"good morning y/n!" said Max smiling. He seemed very happy
"good morning Max" y/n answered nicely but she felt like something was going on there.
"it's a beautiful day to race, don't you think?" said Max wearing his suit and headphones before the helmet. Y/n smiled but she was feeling more and more confused each minute that passed.

"Ok, radio check, Max" said Y/n as every Sunday. She was sitting next to her father who barely spoke to her, and on the other side there was Checo's track engineer. 
"Loud and clear. Let's race!" Max was so euphoric that at a certain point, y/n thought there was nothing strange. He just wanted to win, the strategy was good, the tires choice was perfect. They could win.
"Ok Max, have a good race, man" said Christian.

Lights out, and away we go.

The race began and Max was leading, the pit stop was perfectly on point and very fast. Y/n was sweating but in a good way, she was doing an amazing job. But suddenly, y/n looked at the monitor and saw Carlos getting very close to Max.

"Max you have Carlos right behind you" said y/n immediately. 
"How close?"
"3 seconds" Something was about to happen and y/n could smell it. "stay focused on your position, Max. Keep pushing." 
Turn after turn Carlos was getting closer and closer, something like 1 second closer than him after every turn.
"Max, now Carlos has DRS on you, stay focused and keep pushing"
Carlos reached him immediately and overtook Max. People in the crowd were screaming and y/n knew Carlos would have done something like this. She closed her eyes, then looked at her father who was talking to Max.
"Stay focused Max, you can overtake him very easily. Keep pushing, the race is not over yet."