That's Racing Baby | Lando Norris

Chapter 79

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"What have you got me for my birthday?" Lando asked as the couple entered the paddock in Brazil holding hands. 

"I would have given you your presents this morning if we weren't so, what's the word? Occupied." Emilia replied.

"It was a good occupied though wasn't it." Lando grinned deliberately nudging Emilia's arm.

"There's a lot of eyes on us today." Emilia noticed. She needed a good weekend. Her midweek chat with Toto gave her an extra boost as he told her if she carried on the way she was, he would give her the seat regardless of Lewis retiring or not. He obviously meant it as a joke but Emilia liked to think he was being serious.

"Have you seen your butt in those shorts of course they are." Lando joked quietly.

"You know I only wore them for you." Emilia responded quietly. "I think you should have come in the paddock a few seconds after me and you'd get a better view."

"It's fine, I'll enjoy taking them off." Lando smirked. Emilia hoped there were no microphones anywhere nearby. "Have you got a meeting now?"

"Yes I do. I'm late actually." Emilia answered. She wasn't massively bothered about being late but she didn't want to waste the engineer's time. It was Jost's time Emilia didn't mind wasting.

"This evening then." Lando decided.

"Fine. You can come to my room this evening."

"I'll be there. Good luck if I don't see you before qualifying." Lando said giving Emilia a quick kiss before going into the McLaren garage.

"You too." Emilia smiled. Unfortunately, Emilia had a longer walk down the paddock. Hopefully it wouldn't be that way next season.

Emilia didn't see Lando between FP3 and qualifying other than a quick wave on track to say thanks when the blue flags were out. She was much more nervous for this qualifying than normal and Christine picked up on it. They tried some meditation before warm up and it definitely helped Emilia. She could thank Christine a million times and it still wouldn't be enough for what she does for her.

"Why are you so nervous? Do you want to talk about anything?" Christine questioned. Emilia wished she could have told Christine about the Mercedes seat but she had promised to Toto it was a secret. She knew it had to be not just because it had to be kept away from the media's big mouths but also showing her potential new boss that he can trust her and that she will put her job before her relationships especially as her boyfriend is another F1 driver. Who knows, the Championship battle next season could be between McLaren and Mercedes.

"No not really. It's the end of the season, it's always more tense especially with the battle for third in the Constructors." Emilia responded. She got up and Christine tested her reactions before it was finally time to go down to the garage and get in the car. George was getting an engine penalty so his main job was to make sure Emilia got a slipstream down the main straight. The slipstream wasn't as big as it was in Mexico but it was better than nothing. George would still be competing with other drivers to be the best of the ones getting penalties which Emilia still struggled to get her head around, all the maths of the different penalties.

Emilia flew through Q1 as expected not needing the slipstream from George who managed to get through too. It boosted her confidence especially as Interlagos was a track she hadn't raced at before. The Senna S was where Emilia was losing the most time as she was braking too late which meant she was coming out of the corner too slow. It was a fine balance between braking early and losing time before the corner and braking too late and losing time coming out the corner.