🏁

QATAR

“Has anyone seen Seungwan?”

Minjeong who was cancelling out all the commotion for the past half an hour forced herself to look up while she removed her headphones from her ears, that's the Seungwan unnie effect, anything that concerns her teammate immediately becomes her top priority.

Raising her eyebrows, she scanned the entire garage with her, looking for any traces of the older girl, her blue and gold helmet is missing and so are the rest of her belongings, which means the older girl is nowhere near the garage, which is rare. 

She shrugged, not everything regarding Seungwan should be considered a jeopardy, her teammate is probably relaxing in her motorhome after the free practice, it's hot out here and her teammate isn't the best at handling heat.

Putting her headphones back on, she drifted her attention back to the tablet, but lowered the volume to keep herself updated about the status of her ‘missing’ teammate.

“She has been missing since the qualifying strategy meeting, we need her for the simulations,” Sana groans and from the corner of her eyes, she can see the Japanese girl approaching her.

“Don’t even try I did my round of simulations already,” keeping her eyes on her tablet she rebukes the engineer’s effort to wire her in for another simulation session.

“But the more simulation laps, the better the tuning,” Sana reasoned, her hands removing the headphones from her head.

“Like I said I did my round yesterday and by that I mean 300 laps on that simulator,” looking up she glared at the older girl, “My back is still aching from sitting on that seat for 5 hours, spare me I have a qualifying in three hours,” she added as she stood up and stretched her arms, letting out a mewl upon feeling the bones of her back crack, “Get the reserve driver to do the simulations, unnie did plenty of laps last night.”

“Ugh! Where is Son Seungwan? I haven't seen her since FP3,” Sana mutters, her lips curling to form a pout. “Can you find her atleast? I’m sure she'll come out of her hiding when she'll figure out that her beloved teammate is looking for her,” scratching her head about the unprovoked favouritism allegations she nods and picks up her tablet as she walks out of the garage.

Seungwan being missing is a little weird especially when she hasn't come across Joohyun during the entire race weekend so far and even when they used to cross paths, Seungwan didn't disappear from the garage so something is definitely going on or she is just taking a long shower.

Her steps are a little faster in pace compared to her usual walk, it's the Seungwan unnie effect. Minjeong worries for her without even knowing she does, so her body prioritises the older girl without knowing.

“Eh,” scratching her head she stands against the door of Seungwan's motorhome, seeing it untouched. “She’s not here, should I check the fan pit?” 

She didn't need to check the area at all because from the distance she spotted the Ferrari duo on the stage doing their fan segment. She could see some Red Bull mechanics looking around for Seungwan too.

“Only the rooftop and hospitality are left,” mumbling to herself she hugs her tablet close to her chest as she makes her way through the hospitality section of the paddock to get to the Red Bull hospitality, “If she's not there, she's probably with her ex or whatever their relationship status is.”

With a huff she leans against the empty bar counter because the older girl isn't even there, maybe she should just barge into Mercedes garage and deliver a er punch on Joohyun's face after all, because nothing can mess up Seungwan more than that woman.

That is until she hears a small ‘ouch’ coming from somewhere near her that clearly sounds like it belongs to her unnie. Looking around she rolls her eyes once she sees feet sticking out from under the bar counter.

“Seungwan unnie?”

No response came but the small gasp was enough to confirm her suspicion that the older girl was indeed hiding under the bar counter. Seungwan was hiding under the bar counter of the hospitality all along and no one managed to catch a glimpse of her, it made her chuckle a little.

Minjeong knelt down, tilting her neck as she locked eyes with her teammate who looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Hi,” her teammate mutters, and all Minjeong can think about is…how adorable her teammate looks with bread stuffed in , making her cheeks look squishy. Her enlarged doe eyes only add to her cuteness, it makes her want to cradle Seungwan's face in her hands and coo at her, but if she does that, she'll not make it out alive, so she chooses not to.

“So, why is the villain of Formula One, the most intimidating driver on the grid, hiding under a bar counter, uh, eating bread?” 

“Shut up,” furrowing her brows, Seungwan scoots to the side and puts away the small plastic bag, creating space for her.

Shaking her head in amusement, Minjeong slid next to the empty space next to her teammate, the older girl raised her hand protecting her head from smacking her head on the counter. Once she was fully under the counter, her teammate simply pointed towards the plastic bag, “Make yourself comfortable.”

The two bulls sat next to each other under a bar counter enjoying some red bean bread with chocolate milk for the next few minutes. It was silly, extremely childish, but it felt the right thing to do, so Minjeong did it. 

“I’m tired,” Seungwan finally spoke up, taking a sip from her box of chocolate milk, “I only slept for four hours, those damn meetings and simulations never end,” she nods, because she felt the same, “They put me on a special diet for Qatar because drivers at a risk of throwing up because of race conditions—Can you believe that?” Seungwan huffed.

“Well…they did send me to find you for the simulation work,” she admits, nodding her head at the taste of the bread, it tastes so good, “Don’t worry your little act of rebellion will stay with me.”

Seungwan ruffled her hair before she leaned against her side, resting her head on her shoulder. She's four years younger than her yet she constantly has this urge to baby her teammate, something about her teammate's face screams that she should be babied. Honestly, the whole ‘Son Seungwan, the villain of Formula One’ narrative doesn't make sense to her, the girl sitting next to her doesn't even look that intimidating. Being labelled as a villain for leaving your previous team and being aggressive is just silly.

“It’s relaxing here,” she mutters. Even though they are cramped up under a bar counter in a very limited space, it's calm and if there wasn't a qualifying session in three hours Minjeong would surely consider taking a nap here.

“The rooftop was dusty, this was the only alternative I had,” sluggishly mutters the older girl.

“You know if I didn't find you here, I would've bathed into the Mercedes garage next.”

“I can get behind the thought process of that.”

Seungwan shrugs as she adjusts her legs, beginning up her knees to the side and linking her arms with Minjeong to gain better access to her shoulder. The older girl glances at her, fidgeting with her own fingers.

“We are working things out, kind off, I mean something is changing,” her teammate admits, biting her lip out of nervousness.

“I can see that you no longer have those fiery eyes when you look at her and she doesn't look like a kicked puppy,” sharing her two-cents on a relationship she barely knows about comes easy for some reason, maybe because they are easy to read or maybe it's something else.

“This time do it for yourself unnie,” she looks to her side to lock eyes with the girl who is resting her head on her shoulders, “The first part of moving on is prioritising yourself, do it on the track too.”

“That's the goal,” Seungwan sighs, closing her eyes, “I want to do that too.”

Minjeong wants that too.

🏁

“Martin, thoughts on this chaotic qualifying session, we have had qualifying sessions on tracks that have evolved within laps, wet qualifying sessions and red flags within qualifying sessions too but I really think this one here is going to take the crown of best qualifying session so far.”

“Couldn’t agree more Crofty, this has been hands down the most entertaining qualifying session of this season. We saw the Ferrari of Kang Seulgi suffer the horrible fate of getting out in Q1 after all her lap times were deleted due to track limits. In Q2 we witnessed both Yoo Jimin and Kim Minjeong go out as their last attempts at making into Q3 were also ruined by track limits, apart from this we also saw the defending world champion almost go out in Q2 but she made it past by quality P10 in Q2. Right now the only driver on the grid that hasn't gone past track limits is Bae Joohyun’s championship rival Son Seungwan who is currently waiting at the pit exit for the start of Q3.”

Lifting her visor a little, Seungwan rubs her eyes with her gloved fingers before she settles down it again, “The dust is getting worse, visibility is a joke out here,” muttering through the radio she fixes her gaze on the lights waiting for them to turn green.

“Minjeong was complaining about that too, just be careful at turn 10 about the track limits,” she pushes the pedal down moving the car forward as soon as she sees the lights turning green.

Track limits traumatise her, she missed out on pole a couple of races ago due to track limits too and here in Qatar, the track limits are too lethal. She was shocked upon knowing that both Ferraris and McLaren's were out of Q3 because of the track limits, not to mention her own teammate too.

She's been doing well on keeping all four wheels within the white line, she hopes that she can continue doing that for these last three laps to get pole, it's been a while since she has gotten one and she'll love to get on the front row after the disaster that was the Singapore qualifying.

“I didn't know we were racing Martin! That Haas has to move out of Son Seungwan's way, she's on a flying lap with purple first sector and purple middle sector, this is going to hurt her lap.”

“Yeah, that Haas is defending against the championship contender and they are racing wheel to wheel, almost making contact too. I can't wait to get on Son Seungwan's radio to see what she thinks about this.”

“Yeah, mate that was noted for impending,” Sana informs through the radio.

“Whoever was in that Haas is a dickheads, I almost collided mate—What the ! Stop acting like a bunch of rookies,” she isn't going to hold back on her anger obviously when her pole worth lap was ruined in the last sector by a Haas out of all cars and she doesn't care if it makes it into the headline which it's obviously going to be.

“Looks like that tussle with Haas has ruined Son Seungwan’s momentum, her second attempt could only manage a P2 and with three minutes to go Bae Joohyun is on provisional pole.”

“It’s a battle between the Mercedes and RedBull because none of the other cars are fast enough to match their pace, right now Bae Joohyun is through the last sector to start her lap while Son Seungwan is entering the middle sector of her outlap. Both of them are going to have a little disadvantage because of the traffic and the dirty air.”

“On provisional pole right now,” she almost loses her grip on the throttle because of the sudden radio message because she is on provisional pole without even starting a lap.

“I haven't started my last lap,” she mutters.

“Bae’s last lap got deleted, so your last lap is on provisional pole,” nodding as she shakes her head a little to focus as she crosses the white line to start her lap.

“More drama! Bae Joohyun crosses the line to take away the pole from Son Seungwan but Son Seungwan improves on her previous time to snatch the pole position, there is a twist because it seems like Son Seungwan is under investigation for track limits.”

“She looks fine in turn 10 but from the spider cam view of turn 12 it seems like she did exceed the track limits which means the pole goes to Bae Joohyun!”

Shaking her head she takes off her gloves in frustration crouching next to her car, because that was no one's mistake but her, the huge screen only adds salt to her wound showing the replay of the moment she threw away the pole position.

That is until she's on her feet waiting for her turn when she hears something that rocks her world, “Joohyun, were you informed about any ongoing investigation regarding track limits?”

“Not that I remember,” the older girl awkwardly shakes her head, scratching the back of her neck as she looks around confused.

“It seems like your lap time has been deleted for track limits at turn 5 and turn 10, so I am afraid it's a P2 start for you,” widening her eyes Seungwan looks around to see the mechanics telling her that she's on pole now.

“Lovely,” Joohyun shakes her head and turns her head to lock eyes with her while she's still processing the entire track limits fiasco.

Unable to hold back a chuckle she can't help but burst into a small fit of laughter as she exchanges mics with Joohyun who ends up chuckling as well, giving her a pat on her back as she gets ready for her post qualifying interview.

“A tricky qualifying out there, run us through the emotions you are going through because I am sure this is really confusing.”

“Ahh, I’m just looking around for another announcement to see if my previous lap is getting deleted too or what…this is confusing but yeah happy to be back on pole after Singapore.”

“You weren’t having any problems with track limits before Q3, did something change or were those new soft compound tires giving you a hard time in terms of grip.”

“The visibility out there is really bad because of all the dust so it's hard to see but the track temperature was cooler than we expected so it was hard to get the grip right even with the soft tires.”

“Do you think track limits will play any part during the race too?”

“I mean it looks like they will so we have to be careful especially with the tough conditions and the visibility issues, it could be a very difficult race for all of us.”

“Happy to see you back on pole, good luck for tomorrow.”

“Appreciate that.”

She walks to the side of the garage getting some water to hydrate herself on when she finds Joohyun crouching next to her doing the same, slowly she bends her knees until she sits against the wall and starts to drink some water as well.

“Which turn did you go wide on?” Joohyun asks, a little bit breathless.

“The entrance of turn 12, there was no grip to steer around the apex,” she replies nonchalantly, it's a normal conversation between drivers, nothing else. “You?” She questions, pouring some water over her face to get rid of the sweat.

“It was turn 12 in Q2. I was focusing on that during Q3, more shocked about turn 5 than turn 10 cause everyone was going wide at turn 10 but turn 5 was just uncalled for,” the older girl shares.

“I was more worried about turn 10 that's why I went over turn 12,” standing up she shakes her head a little to get rid of excess water on her face.

“They should’ve told us about the new limits before qualifying,” the older girl complains as the head out of the garage side by side, conversing about the qualifying.

It is unusual for her and Joohyun to be seen like this on track after the turmoil, there isn't any suffocation surrounding her when she sees Joohyun on track, it feels nice.

🏁

Seven laps to go, she's P2 with much fresher tires and a gap of just three seconds separates her from Joohyun. If it was any other race she would've gone for the chance to win but not today, not when she has forced herself to race for fifty laps despite not feeling well.

She had clearly underestimated the racing conditions in Qatar, the conditions were more strenuous than she remembered them to be a couple of years ago and she was clearly paying the price of it.

The race was nothing but chaos from the start with the Williams and Alpine colliding at turn one causing a safety car to come into play and giving Joohyun an advantage on her soft compound tires while she was struggling with grip on the medium compounds, still she managed to stay in the lead after the first pit stop, then came the three way crash that brought another safety car and this time it helped Joohyun close down the gap on her, eventually the Mercedes overtook her down the main straight with that enormous DRS advantage.

She pushed herself and the car but the last ten laps have been nothing but a torture, her racing suit is drenched in her own sweat, she doesn't know when it happened but her drinking tube is also blocked and she feels awfully thirsty, the visibility is awful with the sand around them and she feels like she might blackout if she pushes herself to her limits.

It's not just the case with her, Sana had asked her if she wanted to retire after Minjeong and a couple of rookies complained about not feeling well, one driver did end up retiring and her teammate despite not feeling well just like her, she kept going.

She'll take the P2 even