Love Always Wins

59

Sunday July 5th. Spielberg, Austria.

Seb groaned and gave himself a few extra seconds before starting to get out of his Ferrari. The race was over, the first weekend back for Formula One was almost done. He shakily got out of the car, his body still pumped with adrenaline but at the same time battling fatigue, both the mental and the physical kind. He reattached his steering wheel and took a final look at Lucilla, his beautiful nightmare. Seventy-one laps of fighting with a car that was practically un-drivable, seventy-one laps of fighting to keep it on the tarmac, fighting with midfield runners and for what? One single, solitary world championship point, that's what. All that effort, all that sweat, all that frustration and anger at his spin on lap thirty-one and all he'd got was a point to show for it. Any hopes of ending of his race with a rejuvenated passion for his sport had gone on that lap. He felt annoyed at himself for the spin and disheartened in his quest to rekindle his love for his sport and to regain his drive and determination to win. If he'd been hoping to impress both team principals of Red Bull and Mercedes today, this race had not been the way to do it. All he wanted to do now was get back to his motorhome, shower and then Skype his wife. He was desperate to see her face and hear her voice, she'd make him feel better, she always did. As he went to get weighed he glanced around to see Heikki waiting for him, ready to take his helmet and HANS device and to give him his red cap and drinks bottle. He stood and waited for his turn to go into the FIA garage, hoping that Britta would be around when he came out. The sooner he got the media pen done, the better.

"Where is he?" Britta asked as she joined Heikki. "Have you spoken to him yet?"

"He's only just gone in to get weighed, he had to wait outside the garage, that won't have gone down well." He replied, looking into the garage where Seb was stood on the weigh bridge with his helmet still on.

"There's something not right with him, have you noticed?" She watched with a look of concern on her face as Seb left the weigh bridge and started to head out of the garage in their direction.

"Yeah, he's not been himself since the test session in Mugello. I tried to ask him about it on the way back that day and he virtually ripped my head off. Whatever it is, he won't talk about it."

"Maybe he's missing Chloe." She replied quickly as Seb got closer. He hadn't even taken his helmet off yet and already she could see how dejected he looked just by the way he walked. She took a step back as he removed his helmet and balaclava and watched as he passed them to Heikki who dutifully passed him his cap and drinks bottle, he was quick to put the straw between his lips and take a long drink from it and she exchanged a look of 'here we go' with Heikki before he left them alone.

"Let's keep this brief Britta." He muttered, not looking forward to being repeatedly asked about his spin.

"Of course." She nodded as they started to walk. With a much reduced media presence in the paddock, their walk to the media pen was largely uninterrupted, just a couple of tv cameras seemed to follow them and as usual, Seb kept walking at his usual brisk pace while staring stoically ahead as if they weren't even there.

"Did you check in on Chloe?" He asked, even though he'd spoken to her just before the race.

"I sent her a text and she replied, she's fine. They were all going to watch the race together and she said she can't wait to speak to you later."

He didn't reply but he cringed a little inside, sure that the race hadn't been good viewing for everyone back home.

"Does it feel good to have the first race done?" She asked, wanting to use his answer to gage how he felt.

"I'm certainly glad it's over." He replied grimly.

"It feels good to be racing again though right? Even though it was a tough race."