Last Man Standing

Chapter 3

Hey guys, here is another update before it is time. I am having so much fun writing this story, yet it is so much work... But that's okay. Next chapter will be the race, so prepare yourselves mentally for that in advance! 

Have fun reading this chapter and let me know what you think of it by voting and commenting!

First race weekend

Bahrain International Circuit

Friday afternoon

Qualifying

"Okay, so the plan is to do a warm-up lap and then just attack, see what time you can get."

"If it is not good enough?" Marylinde was already seated in her car, speaking to her race engineer through the radio.

"You'll try again on these tires. We'll have enough time to do a second stint."

"So if needed you'll let me run on two sets of tires?"

"Indeed."

"Copy." Marylinde drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She was waiting to be let out of the pit lane by her team.

"You'll be going out in a minute, wait for the green flag at the end of the pit lane."

"Will do." When given the signal, she slowly let go of her clutch and gently pressed down on the throttle. After a good practice session in which she had finished seventh – though not sounding specifically impressive, Marylinde was over the moon with the result – Marylinde was in a good mood. Maybe it wasn't that hard after all to perform so well so soon. If she could do it in her first free practice session, she could do it in her first qualifying only a couple of hours later.

At the end of the pitlane, she was forced to stop behind one of the ART cars as the lights hadn't gone green yet. As Marylinde waited for the session to start, she bit the inside of her lip. She was more nervous than she was letting on.

"We have someone here who wants me to tell you to drive like your life depends on it because it does?" Marylinde chuckles at the confusion which is clear in the final part of the sentence.

"Tell Kev he won't have a chance against me, but I will." It could only be one person who would tell me I would be dead if I didn't give it my all. Marylinde frowned, or maybe two. "It was Kevin right?"

"Yes, it was."

"Thank goodness, that would have been awful if it hadn't been him." She laughed and then noticed the light flash from red to green. "Guess I will drive as my life depends on it."

"Don't forget about the radio check."

"Copy." Marylinde let her clutch slip again and drove onto the track for the second and final session of the day. The result of tomorrow would partially be dependent on her result of qualifying. Doing bad now would most probably mean a race outside the points and with that a smaller chance of a good result for the Sunday. A good qualifying would set her up for chances in the points and maybe even the podium. All she had to do was do well at that moment.

"Radio?" In her car, Marylinde started to grin, the team was not going to know what was happening to them, but the night before, she and Lando had made a bet. According to Lando, she didn't have the guts to sing loudly over the radio.

"It's Friday then, it's Saturday Sunday what?! It's Friday then, it's Saturday Sunday what?!"

"Clear." Again, the confusion was clear in the voice of the race engineer. Marylinde chuckled and then got her head in the game. A warm-up lap and then it was time for her to push everything out of the car. She weaved around, trying to generate some heat into the tires and when driving around the final corner, she accelerated, hurdling onto the starting straight. She tried to nail every braking point to make sure she could get on the gas as soon as she could exiting the corner and before she knew it, she was back on the first straight.