Lap 16

netherlands

Just a few hours passed before Dev was back in the garage with the team. She flashed a smile towards Mick who walked past her car. The team was securing her belts into place. She just sipped from her Monster water bottle.

The first practice session was anything but eventful. Both Dev and Lewis were able to run any programs the teams wanted on their first set of hards.

Dev was able to through the media rather quickly, this weekend seemed to be going in favor of Mercedes. Red Bull was having some issues with their gearboxes and they were walking the fine line between getting a penalty or not.

Dev was walking to the garage to be in the car on time for FP2 when someone stopped her. It was Zac Brown, she nearly laughed as he lightly grabbed her shoulder. She shuffled to stop, doing her best to school her facial features.

"Hey, kid. You're doing get out there. You know you would always be welcome at McLaren."

Dev was pretty sure she threw up in her mouth as his words were processed in her brain.

"Thanks Zac but-"

Some yelled at her from across the paddock. Zac's eyes tracked the sound through all of the commotion. Toto stood at the enterance of the garage with a menacing looking on his face. Mick and Gina stood next to him. Mick kept a colder face than normal. While Mick could be loaned out to McLaren; coming after other drivers in the middle of the season was a no no. Especially when McLaren was supposedly going to announce their drivers within the next few days.

Gina stood there smirking as she waved towards her friend. Only Gina could get away with hollering across the paddock at her friend in German. Dev had no doubt that Toto had said something undesirable about what Zac was saying.

Gina came running up and hugged her hard enough that Devlin's muscles barked in protest.

"Like I was saying, Thanks Zac. Good Luck out there."

That all she could get out between breaths. Gina was making sure she could sell this reunion the best she could. Realistically it had only been a few weeks since they had last seen each other.

Gina led her towards the entrance to the Mercedes garage. Toto flashed her a grin and she just shook her head with a smile on her face. Mercedes was her family and always would be.

~

She had no doubt that they filtered most of her radio message out if it was live on the coverage channels.
There were more than a few curse words and in multiple languages. Her French was coming along courtesy of her boyfriend. But so was her cursing in foreign languages.

The team would have to scramble overnight to put her car back together. She had launched it into the wall on the last corner of the track on her first push lap. Her medium tyres didn't nearly give her as much grip as she thought she had.

Another long night in the garage would be waiting for them.

Dev's car was barely up and running before the start of FP3. The computer systems in her car were giving the engineers trouble though the night. They finally were able to reset them and they could communicate with the car via all the other tech in the garage.

Before Dev could get a great lap in, some raindrops started to fall. She would only finish 8th on the timesheets. The rain came and didn't pass. The teams switched strategies for wet weather conditions.

Qualification was painfully slow and the amount of traffic made it difficult for both her and Lewis to mark decent lap times. Max and Charles were leading by miles.

Dev came out across the line and saw her time go to the top of the timesheet. She watched behind her as Lewis in the twin to her car came roaring down to the line. He would be on pole no doubt. More and more cars cross the line. As the session progressed the weather got better. They were even able to put slicks on for Q3.

Dev was stuck in traffic, she couldn't start a lap in time before the session ended.

She would be starting P6. It wasn't the end of the world but she was slightly disappointed, especially when Lewis was on pole.

~

Sunday couldn't have come and gone any quicker. The stands were just waves of orange. Most of the fans supported their star driver or McLaren. In the sea of orange there were a few Mercedes and Ferrari shirts. It still didn't stop fans from wanting to stop her to snap a quick photo or get a signature. Of course she was watched very closely by her team, they were always making sure she wasn't getting overwhelmed by fans and what fans got to take pictures with her. Since she was the only female on the grid, the team made some adjustments for her to feel safer during media. It helped immensely, it made the walk through the pack not nearly as unbearable.

Dev was in her car before too long. The grid was full of celebrities as usual. She could pick out Brundle as he stalked through the crowd. She waved at him and he waved back before going back on the hunt for his next victim.

Eventually they started to usher people off the grid and the teams got to serious work on getting the cars ready. Most of the work they waited to do until the grid was somewhat clear.

"Radio check."

"Why doesn't Martin ever come over and interview me?"

"Maybe cause you're a driver, Dev."

"Nah man, I'm a celebrity."

She smiled against her helmet as Briggs chuckled back to her.

~

Everything was going great. Dev was climbing up closer to the podium and Lewis was ahead of Max. Yet there was also a DRS chain in the top four. Her, Charles, Max and Lewis were all within a second of each other. Her and Charles were driving somewhat timidity. Given the egos the two drivers in front of them had especially when they were racing each other for the win.

There was a good chance they would fuck with each other with brake checks, early or late braking and slamming doors.

Even though she was aware it could happen, she almost didn't regester it quick enough. Lewis got turned around in the final corner. Only because Max bumped his rear tyre, but doing so also sent himself careening towards the wall near the pits. Charles swerved almost into her to avoid Lewis. She trailed Charles as it became clear he knew the track better than her. The safety car was instantly deployed. Neither car could race again after that. Dev bucked down and started chasing Charles. She was going to be on top of him once the safety car went in. Except Carlos had the same idea behind her.

~

The Ferrari couldn't have been happier with a 1-2 finish. Their season was finally rounding together. Charles was able to bring Dev in close enough to hold her in a box as his teammate soared past her. Dev simply didn't have enough tyre to catch them as the numbers of lap went up. Surely she would catch them in Monza...

a/n:
another shorter chapter but I have been working on some really exciting chapters that I can't wait to share with y'all. Also, I officially started Uni and its kicking my ass. :(