-+Rivals+- A Lando Norris Fanfic

Chapter 11

It's race day!

I practically jumped out of bed when my alarm went off. My heart rate was so high. I speed ran getting ready; I was just so excited to get to the track.

Once Penelope finally got there, we left together.

"There's a lot of stuff we gotta do at the track before the race. There's a good bit of fan interactions we want to try and get done, as well as a few interviews. You'll have breakfast with the team members, where you'll talk about various strategies and who they think will be a threat to you in the race today," She explained.

"I'll do whatever you say, but I don't think I'll be able to sit still until I'm in that car," I laughed.

"Glad you're excited. A lot of the time with rookie drivers, their first race makes them nervous wrecks, which causes mistakes to be made," Penelope said.

That made me a little nervous. I know that the starts of Formula 1 races are usually complete chaos at the first turn, I'm going to have to be incredibly careful not to make contact with anyone.

We got to the track and I took a few pictures with fans and did a couple of interviews before getting into the Alfa Romeo hospitality lounge for breakfast. One race days, we have to eat very light, so we don't add extra weight to the car. Usually, it's down to a bit of granola or something like that.

I opted for a bit of oatmeal and sat down with the team to start strategizing.

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I walked into the garages and saw all the drivers milling about. Once again opting to talk to Charles, I made eye contact with Lando and raised my eyebrows to him as a way of saying "Good Luck."

"Race day!" Charles said.

"I'm so excited man you have no idea," I laughed. "I think I just sat there practicing the starting procedure with my steering wheel for a solid hour in total whenever I had time."

"Yea, it's so weird adjusting to a different wheel. Knowing you, though, I'm sure you had it mastered right away," Charles told me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, you're the youngest on the grid this year, and yet you were able to acclimate to a whole new car at lightning speeds. You did the same thing in Formula 2, you adjust quickly," He explained. I may be the youngest on the grid this year, but only barely. Lando is only a few months older than me, so if anything, he is just as impressive.

"Well, thank you. You probably jinxed it now, though. I'm gonna stall on the starting line and it's gonna be all because of you," I laughed.

Charles laughed and Kimi came over to talk to me. "You did better in qualifying than I thought you would. Score us some points today, yea?" He said, lifting up a fist for a fist bump. I think this is probably the most that he has ever said to me.

"I'll do my best," I said with a smile, giving him the fist bump he was waiting for.

We were all instructed on which cars to go to for the driver's parade, and I got a car right behind Lando.

"Ey! Nerd!" I yelled over to Lando. Lando turned around and smiled, waving at me.

I laughed and the driver's parade started. I could hear the fans screaming as Lewis was passing the grandstands a bit in front of me. I can only dream of that being me one day.

There were a few people that yelled out to both Lando and I, but it was nowhere near the smattering of applause that the returning drivers received. It was understandable, though; no-one really knows who we are. I've seen that with the different events all weekend. They'll all know my name soon enough, though.