-7-

                                    

                                          
The girl and her team knew when going into the weekend they would be struggling. Bahrain was a tricky circuit with the constant sand flying across the track and to make it even 'better' the wind was picking up massively. Not only were the weather conditions shitty the car was too. The balance of the car was far to be found and the rear of Norah's- and Lando's- car kept slipping away. Despite ending seventh in the first free practice the girl was definitely not satisfied.
                          
The second practice session wasn't much better, Norah ended up with a respectable eleventh, but you couldn't exactly say Norah was happy with the car. It felt like she had a constant fight for grip and whenever she finally found that something else was wrong. 
                          
Luckily Norah wasn't the only one struggling in the sandy conditions. Lando was also struggling. So much even, that the teammates almost ended up into each other's car. Norah was definitely not amused and let her frustration be publicly known on the radio. 
                          
Lando was struggling to control his car with the dusty conditions. He had a hard time finding balance, so when the wind picked up and hit the back of his car his rear started slipping away. 
                          
What he didn't expect was his teammate to pass him while putting in a flyer. This resulted in him almost driving into her side. He was quick to apologize on the team radio, but he knew Norah couldn't hear him and would probably be frustrated with him. So he made sure to make a mental note to not forget to say sorry in person.
                          
"What the hell does he think he's doing! He almost drove into me, this day could literally not go worse. This is getting ridiculous." 
                          
but of course with saying that she cursed herself because guess what. Life decided to show her it definitely could get worse when the girl suddenly lost her rear-end and spun around. Norah was Lucky enough to keep it out of the barrier by just a couple of centimetres, but her tyres were completely ruined. 
                          
"Fuck me"
                          
"Are you okay, are you okay?" Norah wanted nothing more than to park her car on the side and be done for the day. She liked racing, but the whole day altogether was just too much for her. Her frustration clearly showing in all the ways possible. 
                          
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, the tyres are fucked." Norah was extremely frustrated, with her car, her team and herself. What did she do to deserve all these complications? 
                          
"How's the car?"
                          
"The car is fine, I didn't hit anything. The balance is just shitty" The girl was really done for today. The car wasn't working anything close to what she wanted it to be and the spin really tested her patience, patience she didn't have.
                          
"Copy, box, box, We're ending this session early." Norah let out a relieved sigh and drove her car back to the pits. Not much later she climbed out of her car to see that Lando was already parked in the garage, confusing the girl.
                          
"They were already planning on calling you inside, but then you spun." Lando said upon seeing the girls confused facial expression. "Nice save by the way." 
                          
"Oh, uhm thanks?" Norah was looking at her car making sure she didn't accidentally hit anything when she spun when she saw the problem. She was sure this wasn't caused by her spinning because she had ended up with the rear closest to the barrier. 
                          
There was a small piece missing of her front-wing. She wondered how long that was already gone. Could it be that that was the reason for her lack of balance this session? Then it dawned upon her. Lando had probably clipped of something from her front-wing when almost crashing into the girl.
                          
She had already banned the accident out of her mind after the adrenaline she got when almost parking her car in the wall. This was the reason she almost had crashed. She already had a lack of balance, but when she lost a piece of her front-wing it must have been too much. 
                          
The girl walked to the front of her car, crouching in front of it and studying the now damaged front-wing. 

"Oh shit, I hit you? Sorry about that." Norah sighed, standing up to match the boy's height. Lando thought the girl for sure would give him a lecture about it, but she surprised both of them when replying. 

"It's alright." 
                          
Upon seeing the boy's confused face she added: "As long as you don't make it a regular thing." She gave him a small smile and walked to the pit wall to look at some data. 
                          
Did the Norah Michaelson just smile at him?
                          
-
                          
The third session was slightly better for the girl ending the practice in ninth position, but she couldn't stop thinking about the fact Lando was in front of her. Luckily it was just in the free practice and she still had a chance to out-qualify him even if her chances weren't really looking all too bright. 
                          
Lando had always been the one that was more talented in qualifying from the two, so Norah wasn't expecting qualifying higher than him when stepping into her car.
                          
Q1 was easy, they didn't have the best of cars, but definitely not the worst either. The Williams how sad it was, had already two places reserved, so really there were only three other people to fall out in Q1. This being the racing point from Lance stroll, Nico Hulkenberg with the Renault and Antonio Giovinazzi with his Alfa Romeo. 
                          
Q2 was a little trickier, especially now the mid-field was as tight as it is. Lando had a problem with the Haas of Grosjean. It looked like that bloody Frenchman really had something against McLaren after already messing up Norah's qualifying lap in Australia too. 
                          
The Haas driver was completely in the way of Lando and had reduced the chance of still getting in Q3. Lando however, being the good qualifier he is, just got into Q3 in tenth place. Kicking Ricciardo out of the top 10 together with Alexander Albon, the Red Bull of Pierre Gasly- which came as a slight surprise- Sergio Perez and Daniil Kvyat. 
                          
Norah figured she could maybe beat the Alfa Romeo of Räikkönen like she did in Australia, but doubted she would get higher than a ninth position in Q3. Nonetheless, she started Q3 with high hopes. 
                          
The girl did everything right, from the breaking points to getting the perfect exit. She didn't know where the sudden perfection came from, but she wasn't complaining. After the struggles she had in the free practices, she was thankful the car finally -kinda- worked like she wanted. 
                          
She didn't know how fast she was. All she knew was that she was fast, so fast even that she would maybe out-qualify Lando for the twentieth time in her career. Which wasn't a lot, she was very aware of that, but maybe that only made this better. 
                          
She was sure that if she was in a better car this might have even been a pole lap. Unfortunately, her car wasn't the best on the grid so she finished seventh, but she definitely didn't complain. This was like a pole position with her car. She knew that there were only a few things she could've done better. Maybe if she did those she would've beaten Magnussen as well, but nonetheless was happy with the place she had.
                          
Seventh with a McLaren was a miracle on itself.

                          
-
I'm feeling very generous
                          
Also, what do you think about Zandvoort? I literally live right next to it, so like I know who's going hehe ( If I can convince my parents bc I'm broke af and I can't afford that lmao)

                          
word count: 1318 
publish date: 14/05/2019