DETERMINED - LANDO NORRIS

-3-

Norah was getting ready for the race in her drivers room when her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door. She tilted her head to the side, wondering who it could be. Before letting out a 'yeah?' and continued getting dressed. However the one person she didn't expect walking through the door was exactly the one that did.

The teenager squinted her eyes as she looked at the all too familiar boy standing in front of her. "Lando?" He had caught her by surprise, she sort of expected it to be her sister or Bryan, her physio, but no. It was her teammate, the one she wasn't friends with.

"I just wanted to wish you good luck. How are you feeling?" The boy stood awkwardly in the doorframe looking around the room.

"Why?" Norah was confused. They didn't get along so why was he standing in her drivers room wishing her luck asking her how she was doing like it was the most normal thing in the world? Was this some reversed psychology? Just to get into her head before the race?

"I just figured, that we should at least try to get along since we, you know, are teammates and all." The girl was slowly nodding her head before answering his question.

"I feel like I'm going to be sick."

Lando raised his eyebrows. Looking at her with a confused facial expression. "You mean from excitement?"

Norah quickly shook her head and plopped herself down on the couch. "Nerves." Lando hesitantly sat down next to her, looking at the younger girl beside him.

She was fiddling with the sleeves of her suit that was tied around her waist, a clear indication she was indeed nervous. She suddenly looked so small, sitting so close next to him. He had never seen her nervous. To him she always looked excited to race.

When they were young he actually used to be pretty jealous of her. Why wasn't she nervous like him? He knew he certainly was.

She always seemed so relaxed, so calm and it annoyed the living hell out of Lando. She Always seemed to have everything figured out and she seemed so... prepared, but now that she had mentioned her nerves he thought back and started to recognise her tics as nervous ones. Everything became clear at once.

She wasn't as put together as he had always thought.

It didn't took long for him to realise she was very self-conscious about her driving. He was surprised, because to him she always looked relaxed and happy, but now sitting this close next to her he could see she was the exact opposite.

He looked up into her eyes. He didn't exactly know why, but before he knew it reassuring words came flooding out of his mouth."Hey, you're going to be fine, it's not like you haven't raced before. You always kicked my ass, I'm sure you can still do that in a different car that just goes a little faster."

Norah chuckled confusing Lando even more. "Thanks." Norah thought it was weird that he tried to cheer her up, but figured he was just trying to get her together for the teams sake. The boy was always more of a team player than she was, so it was expected he would be the first one trying to fix their problems. Lando hesitated before saying a questionable 'you're welcome?' The girl smiled at him and grabbed her helmet.

"Let's go. It's race time!"

-

Norah stood beside her beautiful orange car, soaking up last-minute information from her engineer about the different strategies etc. He was quickly explaining her what Lando would be doing and warning her to be careful. They could really use getting a good start of the season with some points. "You'll be fine, just have fun and don't be too greedy." Norah nodded, climbed into her car and before she knew it people were walking off the grid and the formation lap began.

She could still feel the nerves bubble in her stomach, but most nerves were now replaced by excitement.

She was waving around the track in attempt to keep her tyres on temperature and soon enough was driving her car to her 9th starting position waiting for the lights to go out.

It felt like an eternity for the lights to dim down, even if it really just happened in a couple seconds, max. She was focused on the lights, taking one more breath and driving away when the lights finally went out. Her start was okay, while Lando's start was good.

She mentally cursed herself, the start should be the part where she surpassed the boy in terms of talent. She used to get called out for jump-starting quite a lot, because of her usual good starts, but for some reason the engine felt a little off and her start wasn't as spectacular as she had hoped. It was even so not special, that Lando was confused as to why.

He had immediately looked in his mirrors to see where Norah was so he could defend his position, but was surprised to see her getting overtaken by the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Räikkönen, slipping down to 10th place.

"Is somethings wrong with the engine?" it was not so much a question as an statement. She knew something was wrong with the engine. She could feel it. She just hoped that she wasn't as experienced as she thought and would be wrong.

Would you have watch it on the TV you would have been able to hear Lando's "What happened to Norah?" on the board radio. He could clearly tell something happened. He knew that this wasn't just some nerves doing this to her, but when the team told him they didn't know he started to doubt.

He never saw her nervous, maybe because this was the first time she was? Your first formula one race was indeed something to be nervous for, but something inside him told him that wasn't what happened. Maybe he just didn't know her as well as he thought he did.

-

"You can really see the two have been racing against each other for forever now. You can see how Norris looked in his mirrors expecting Michaelson to be all over him."

"Yeah, and when she wasn't he could immediately tell something was wrong with her car."

"Let's hope it was just the start and she can continue her race."

"Yeah, Let's take a second look at the start."

-

Norah did that too. Really hoping it was just the beginning of her race that was ruined by the rough engine and continued driving. Catching up with the cars in front of her. The lack of power had already cost her three places at the start. So she was now in 12th place behind a Torro Rosso.

She would've lost more places wouldn't it have been for the yellow flags following the accident of Daniel Ricciardo. He had tried to overtake the Force India and thereby lost his front wing- yes, all of it. It wasn't really his fault. He was just very unlucky.

As the laps went by Norah had overtaken two cars. She was climbing back into the points, but Norah was quite like Ricciardo, very unlucky and once again felt how her engine struggled.

"I've got no power."

It were two dreadful laps until her engine finally gave up on her. You could see how her engine went up in flames- quite literally- As she parked it on the side of the road next to the pit entry.

Letting out a frustrated groan she stepped out of the car, looking at it and then to the exact same orange car passing by. She felt horrible about the thought that crossed her mind. Even though it was quite a normal thought.

'why not him?'

-

I really didn't want her first race to go like this, but then I watched the Australian GP highlights and got inspired lol. Sorry not sorry. Also this update is a day early because I have a weird week at school and I'm not sure if I have time to upload tomorrow and I rather upload a day earlier than later.

Fun fact: I actually hate the colour orange. I'm such a fake Dutchie lmao

I have a second book about Lando and Norah please go check it out! 

Thankss :3

Word count: 1414 
Publish date: 06/05/2019