Love Is My Drug (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 22: Another Podium

One and half an hour had passed. It meant that the first practice session finished. All drivers had arrived back to their garages. The crews were cooling the tyres when Sebastian went out of his car.

As a result, Seb was the fastest on that session. That was a good start for him and the team. After he walked away from his 'Hungry Heidi', he took his helmet and balaclava off and also handed them to Heikki.

How surprised he was when he saw his parents there, in the garage with Clara. He immediately gathered with them, and gave quick hugs for his lovely parents.

"Mom, dad, why didn't you tell me that you'd be here?"

Heike laughed. "We are sorry, Sebastian. We just want to surprise you. As we feel a lot better compared to three weeks ago when you were in Germany, so we've decided to go to this weekend's race."

"Yes, Seb, your mother is right," Norbert added. We apologize once again because we couldn't come to Nürburgring."

He smiled at his father. "No need to apologize, dad. I can understand with your condition that time."

"True. But don't worry, we are feeling well now," he replied while rubbing his son's upper arm.

Then, Seb's focus moved to his girlfriend. "Clara, when will we have lunch? We can bring them to the hospitality."

"Sure, Seb, we can go there at thirty past twelve, which is an hour to go."

"Good. Sorry all, but I have to go now. I should analyze the data that we got from the first practice."

"Okay. Go ahead!"

Seb smiled and walked away from them. While, Clara continued to talk to his parents. Sometimes, she glanced at him. He looked so serious when he was talking about the data with his engineer. But he sometimes slipped a joke on his words, which made the crews laugh.

An hour after, Seb led his parents and Clara to the hospitality, to have lunch together. Heikki also joined them so that the media weren't too suspicious. She initially thought that they wouldn't be wondering about anything as she was his PR. But Seb bewared that they could still be speculating.

As he had some free time, Seb talked to his parents about his plans for summer break. He also asked Clara about the rest activities that he was going to do. Heike and Norbert used their opportunity to get closer to their son's girlfriend with asking some things.

At about 2 in the afternoon, the second practice session was held. The air temperature was quite hot. But that didn't prevent him to be on top in the driver's lap times one and half an hour after.

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After Seb placed himself on P4 on third practice session, he was quite optimistic for qualifying. Of course, like another drivers, he wanted to get pole position.

But he and the team had to admit that Mercedes were quicker. They couldn't beat them on that session. Nico was fastest on Q1 and Q2, but the pole position was snatched by his teammate, Lewis.

Seb would start right beside Lewis. In fact, he almost got pole. But unfortunately the British's lap time was faster than him and the gap was only 0.038 seconds.

As usual, Seb kept smiling in front of the reporters on interview sessions, hiding his disappointment for failing to be the fastest guy on qualifying. After he was interviewed by another reporters, he moved to Lee McKenzie from BBC F1. She was the reporter that Clara liked the most. She was so friendly, not only to the drivers but also to the driver's PRs.

One time, Lee had told her that Seb was the funniest driver she'd ever known. She also had a great experience when Seb was driving around New Jersey with her in 2012.