Two Faces || Lando Norris

2.4

It was Sunday, in other words: race day. Amelie was having late lunch and watched the race. The qualification was weird yesterday. Leclerc was knocked out Q1 on the last minute, Amelie didn't like it. She wanted a suitable qualification for Leclerc in his hometown. Unfortunately, Lando didn't make Q3, but Carlos did. Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas and Verstappen were fighting for the top three. It was tensive. This were the moments Amelie lived for: fights, battles, and unexpected moments. It could be Hamilton to get the pole, it could be Vettel, or Verstappen, or Bottas. It ended up as Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen due to a mistake of Vettel at the end of Q3.

Amelie's eyes were focussed on the TV; this was an interesting race. Leclerc, unfortunately, had a puncture at the beginning of the race and had to stop his race. There were a few good fights between Hamilton and Verstappen, more fights, and complainants over the radio. It was a good race, many people loved it to watch.

When Amelie wanted to take a bite of her salad, she opened her mouth and looked in front of her. Five other people were looking at her. She froze and looked at them; they were heavily discussing and pointing at her. The salad leaf with tomato fell off the fork, and she looked away; that is awkward. She continued eating and looked back at the TV.

"Amelia Deacon."

She looked up again and chewed faster. "I'm sorry," she mumbled and placed her hand in front of her mouth. "Can I help you?"

"We need you," the man said. Amelie saw him a few times before, but she had no idea who he was. She believed he was from the Formula One television production itself.

She nodded. "Tell me what you need," she smiled.

"You have to come with me, like now. We don't have this much time." He looked around. "You can let this here, it will be taken care off, but we really need to go now." He pointed at her stuff and food on the table.

Amelie raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Yeah, sure," she said and got up. She was confused, why did this man need her so badly, and why was he stressing? Now she was missing the last few moments of the race. "What is going on?"

The man looked at her. "We have a slight issue with the post-interview. You are there for backup, so you are on standby for now." He guided her towards the track.

Why me? There were enough people around the track who could be on her position. In this world, she was nobody. And Amelie was part of Sky Sports F1, not Formula One. Her heartbeat started to rise, and she felt her hand palms becoming a bit wet. The nerves were already forming, while it wasn't even sure what the plan was. Amelie got her in-ears and watched the last few minutes of the race together with other people while she was made ready. She looked around, people were stressing, but the stress level didn't even come near the stress Amelie started to have. She slowly started to realise the chance was immense that she had to do the post qualification interview. But where was the person who usually did this?

Amelie looked painfully at the screen when Hamilton and Verstappen made contact, the battle for pole position was there between the two. More people thought about it that way and made angry sounds. Two laps later, Hamilton was the first who crossed the line, followed by Verstappen, Vettel and Bottas. Due to Verstappen's penalty, the Dutchmen ended up in the fourth place. Her eyes glide over the screen and saw Lando was finished at P11. It was sad there wasn't much footage shown of the midfield, she would love it to see those moments as well.

"Amelie!" A woman yelled over the hectic. Amelie her eyes shot up, someone actually calls me by my name. "You need to go!"

Fuck, it is me. Amelie moved around, not knowing what to do. Someone grabbed her arm and dragged her to the track. This was happening way too quick for her. She and the person walked between the mechanics of Mercedes and Ferrari towards the cars. Fuck, shit, no. Amelie's in-ears were tested, and someone pressed an F1 microphone into her hands. I can't do this, I cannot do this, I swear. Her eyes were scanning the area, she had no idea where to look and what to observe.

"And we go live in five, four, three," the person said and counted down on her hands to zero.

Amelie took a deep breath and widely smiled at Lewis, who was celebrating the win with his team. The cameraman was standing next to her. A smile curved on her lips when Lewis walked towards her. A man gave her a red cap, the red cap to commemorate Niki Lauda. Amelie put in on her head and waited for Lewis. She hoped it looked alright, she was not a cap person.

"Lewis Hamilton," Amelie began. "Congratulations on your seventy-seventh victory. What an incredible race in the streets of Monte Carlo."

Lewis nodded and smiled. "Thank you. I think this was one of the hardest races I had for so far. I have been fighting with the spirit of Niki, you know. Niki has been an influential person in our team, helping us get our team where we are now. And I know he will be looking down and smile..."

Amelie nodded and listened to his story he had to tell. She didn't have to ask a lot of questions since Lewis could tell a lot about this race. Sebastian took his time to speak about the race, and Amelie discussed the race with Valtteri. The interview had a double meaning, but everyone found a way to get through the moment. The phone of Amelie was vibrating all the time in the back pocket of her trousers, it made her feel even more nervous.

When the camera shut off, Amelie her eyes grew, and she looked around with a confused smile on her face. She blew up her cheeks, what just happened? She put her hand on her head and tried her best to act normal, but she was freaking out on the inside. People around her were a bit surprised, especially the people from F1 itself - they didn't expect her to do it this well. Amelie blew out the air and walked over to the production crew. She finished the last things with the crew and walked back to her lunch.

On her way back, she faced Juniper. Amelie tried to share a normal smile, but it was a massive happy smile. "Oh, my god," she blurted and happily moved around; she was jumping out of excitement.

"Mil," Juniper speechlessly said and shook perplexed her head. "What the fuck." She placed her hands on Amelie's arms and widely smiled. "Holy shit. You nailed it!"

"What the hell happened? I...the fuck," Amelie squealed and felt the tears burning in her eyes of excitement. "I am shaking," she said and showed her hand what was shaking. The blood and adrenaline were pumping through her veins. "I need a moment, but what the fuck."

Juniper giggled. "Mate, that was amazing. You did a good job. I am so happy for you. Jeez, I can't believe this happened."

"I don't even know why they picked me. I was just eating my lunch, and suddenly I stood in front of Lewis," Amelie stammered and shook her head. "What the hell."

People around them were smiling, they could see the happiness they shared, and that was wonderful to see. Photographers took her shots of the two, especially of Amelie; one of the new faces of the F1 TV team.

Jon was walking towards the McLaren hospitality when he faced Amelie. When their eyes locked, Jon was widely smiling. "I saw you in the TV," he proudly said and opened his arms for a hug. "Holy shit, Amelie. You owned the interview."

"Thank you," she giggled and hugged him back. "I can't believe I did that," she dreamily said and pulled back.

"You owned it, Mil," he complimented her and let her go. "We will catch up later, I have to go now. But you did a good job," he smiled. He looked at the woman next to her, that must be Juniper. She was having some kind of judge-y look on her face but tried to cover it up with a happy smile. "See you around."

"Yes, yes, absolutely. I perhaps have time to catch up later with you and the rest. I will let you know," Amelie replied and nodded.

"Cheers," Jon said and walked away. He only wanted to tell her that he saw her and that he was proud. Jon had heard from Lando what happened during the breakdown in Baku, what happened at school. He knew Lando had promised not to tell anyone, but the words slipped out of his mouth when he was talking to Jon about it.

"What were you doing there?" Lando coldly asked when Jon was standing next to him, he was referring to the hug between Jon and Amelie.

Jon looked back at Amelie. "Oh, I gave her a compliment?" He looked doubtful back at Lando.

"With a hug and that much excitement?" Lando wasn't entirely satisfied with the situation, but he knew he could trust his trainer.

"Yeah, she had the post-interview on the grid after the race?" Jon could tell Lando didn't feel comfortable.

Lando's expression changed from cold to soft and proud, it was a false alarm. "She did? Really?"