Woman in a man's world

May 13 2018 -Barcelona

Racing day! After a solid Quali yesterday Norah was starting P7. Although she had so many years of racing behind her this was different but she loved it. The race was long and Norah had to use every little spark of energy she had. She made up a few places, she played nice and only made clean overtakes, after all she wanted a good reputation. After a crash Norah managed to get up a few more places, the car was on fire and Norah loved every second of it. 

"Okay Norah this is the last lap of the race, last lap of the race. Riccardo is currently 7.86 seconds behind but keep pushing. It's looking good!" Norah confirmed and pushed the car even more, she started to get tired but that wasn't an excuse. Leaving the last corner she went ful throttle for the last time this race. She passed the Chequerd flag and exhaled, she did it. 

"Yes Norah, awesome job! P3, P3!! Mega drive today, thank you for the whole weekend!" P3, managing to get in a podium in a debut race was not something you saw every race. 

"What No way this is crazy guys!! Thank you so much for this opportunity."  Norah was so happy, for herself she screamed out her happiness and waved to all of the fans. 

She parked the pink car on the P3 place and got out of the car, Norah again got to run to her team who all congratulated and thanked her. After that she walked to get weighed, both Lewis and Max stopped to congratulate her and she did the same to them. Taking of her helmet the biggest smile was on her face, she started to talk to Adam when she heard a familiar voice behind her, she would always recognize thet British accent. 

"I can't bloody believe that you just did that! It was mental!" Before answering Norah gave Lando a big hug. The pair always shared their successes with each other. 

"It was crazy. I didn't even believe the team when they told me my place!" They continued to talk when Norah saw a man in a red suit walking to her, Charles. He got closer and put out his hand just like last time. However Norah didn't ignore him this time, instead she took his hand and gave him a hug, a small laugh coming from Norah. 

"Norah listen-"

"Shut up, don't ruin my moment." Norah said before she left the boys to do her interview.

"On third place, for the first time ever a woman on the podium in her debut race. Norah Wellington Knight everybody! What a fantastic race today Norah, you must be very happy with that result. How did today feel?"

"Of course it feels great, fantastic even that I managed to get P3. But today felt amazing. The whole team was just so put together and everything was so organised. The car was great. It is a really comfortable car to drive so I wasn't afraid to push the limits and it has just been so fun to be here this weekend."

"Well I think you impressed many people here today, maybe even a team principal or two. How do you think your chances of getting a seat for next year changed after this mega drive?"

"That isn't really a question you can ask me but I really hope I impressed them and maybe that I get a phone call or two," Norah said , teasing the team principals. The interviewer congratulated her once more and she thanked him. 

The feeling of being on a podium was not unusual for Norah, but it has been a while and she missed the feeling. Seeing her friends and her team was always special. Right before they were going to play the national anthems Lewis knocked on Norah's shoulder. 

"This is such a big step for F1 to have a woman on the podium, you deserve to be on the highest step" Lewis said with a warm smile and she just smiled back at him a bit confused. He took ahold of her arm and pulled her up to the P1 step of the podium. 

"And you're British right?"

"Scottish"

"Eh close enough" They laughed and listened to the anthems before they got to spray champagne at each other. Apparently Lewis told Max to down their whole bottle on Norah but she couldn't care less. This was the best day of her F1 career, and it was just the beginning.