SAKHIR GRAND PRIX

LIGHTS OUT

Up on the commentators box, Martin Brundle and David Croft sat, ready for the arve to begin. Both were ecstatic, with George Russell sat in the black Mercedes, and Zia Powman in the Navy RedBull, it was set to be an interesting race.

Valterri Bottas was sat in pole position, with Russell parked just beside him in P2. Powman was behind the Mercedes in P3, and Albon was settled in P4. Mercedes, Mercedes, RedBull, RedBull.

Suddenly, the mechanics ran towards the edge of the track as the lights went out to begin the formation lap. Crofty began to feel slightly nervous. "I feel quite nervous over here Martin I must say. With these two young drivers in the championship fighting cars."

Martin nodded in aggrement. "As am I Crofty, I am hoping we don't get replay of what happened at Mugello a couple of months ago."

"The tension between the two drivers has been incredibly high since the incident. As we know, Zia lost the Ferrari seat to Mclaren driver Carlos Sainz for next year, and still does not have a contract for next year. Do you think that she blames this on Russell? Asuming they hadn't crashed, she might have just been heading towards the Tifosi. " Crofty continued, as he watched the acts slowly make their way around the track.

"I think Powman still holds Russell accountable for the race result, but not the seat loss. You know, he didn't go and speak to Matteo Binotto, it was just an unfortunate consequence of the crash."

"I would absolutely love to continue this discussion Martin, but Pietro Fittipaldi, who is filling in for Romain Grojean this weekend, is just reaching his grid spot meaning that our race will be starting soon. All the cars parked up, Powman angling her car slightly, seeing if she is able to take the inside line on the two Mercedes. The Marshal waves his flag, we wait..."

"And its lights out and away we go! Bottas had a bad start off the line, Russell inches forwards, and Powman comes through in between the two cars! The three cars of Bottas, Russell and Powman are neck and neck!"

"Coming up to the first corner, who dares to keep off the brakes... It's not Bottas! Bottas breaks! And so does Powman! George Russell leads the Sakhir Grand Prix into the first corner, with Zia Powman in second place! My word what a start."

LAP 57

APROCHING LAP 58

"57 laps into this race Martin, we have Mr. Saturday, George Russell leading the Grand Prix, with Zia 'Position gainer' Powman in P2. This could be very int-"

But Crofty cut himself off, as the race did become a lot more interesting...

"And Aitken is off! George Russell's Williams replacementhas just crashed! Oh no! Disaster for Aitken."

Martin peered at the footage, "That's a front wing come off there. They will need a saftey car to clean that up, which gives out front runners a chance to pit." He looked back at the screens to see a radio message from Zia was about to play.

"Oh- Radio message from Powman."

The message played, and they could here Zia's race engineer talking to her.

"Okay Z saftey car, saftey car, so we're going to box box, box box."

"Saftey car? What happened."

"Aitken, has lost a front wing we believe."

"Jack? He okay?"

"Yep, all good, he boxed for a new one just now."

The message ended and Crofty spoke up, "Nice little message there from Powman asking about Aitken. She has a great relationship with all the drivers, bar perhaps George Russell." he voiced.

"Powman is friends with almost everyone on the grid. She said to me in an interview once that she 'doesn't like having Co-workers she dislikes.' She says it takes away from the whole experience, and she's 100 percent correct." Martin said.

Crofty nodded turning back to watch the cars come in for a pitstop." I think, Mercedes are double stacking their cars, yes yes they are. Ooh, the front right was a bit slow for Russell... Oh my god! RedBull have just set a fastest pit stop for the season with Powman. They took advantage of Mercedes slow pitstop, and Zia Powman is now very close the the back end of that Mercedes. "

"This is not good for Mercedes. Powman is known for her overtaking, and she is eyeing that Mercedes like its her next meal."

Crofty shuddered. "I am quite scared now to watch the rest of this race."

LAP 64

"Okay George we're going to have to box box, we hve a mixed tyre set on the car."

"So basically, whats happened is, thyev got some of Bottas's tyres on, or indeed, all of Bottas's tyres on." Martin explained, as George came in for a second pitstop.

Crofty sighed. "This is so disappointing for the young driver, he was leading the grand prix."

"My boy from King's Lynn." Martin said dramatically, the two commentators met out a small laugh, as Crofty turned back to the screen.

"You know what this means though Martin, Zia Powman is now leading the Sakhir Grand Prix. This is outstanding. This is juts what she needs to proive herself to the Team Princapls put there."

Martin nodded in agreement. "I was thinking about this the other day, do you think that with Alex Albon's contract ending this year, Christian Horner has put Pwoman in the car to see is she'd be a better option?"

"It's a possiblility Martin, Alex Albon, currently running in 10th place after a bad start. Alex and Zia, both good friends of course, Alex's partner being Zia's best friend, Alice Breakmon, who is also Alex's race engineer."

"Yeah, Alex's start wasn that great, but we've seen this happen before, he's more than capable of crawling back up towards the front of the grid." Martin assured Crofty.

"Well just have to wait and see. God this is a good race."

LAP 79

"Looks like a rear left puncture, rear left puncture."

"That is George Russell's chance of a podium completly gone now." Crofty said in dissapointment, as he watched George drive into the pits for yet another pit stop.

"This is devestating for the young Brit. I feel incredibly sorry for him, he had the pace today to win, but that's all been taken away."

Crofty sighed. "But, on a more positive note, RedBull have made brilliant progress. With Russell pitting, Albon has now moved up to 5th place, and Zia Powman is still leading the grand prix, and its a steady lead I might add. The Brit has an 18 second gap to Perez behind, who's also had a brilliant grand prix. "

"Yeah, that 18 second gap keeps building too. 18.5 now." Martin checked.

"Let's talk about Sergio Perez for a moment then, started, what 5th? Had an incident with Charles Leclerc on the first lap, which saw him drop down to last place, and is now second. What an unbelievable day for Sergio."

Martin smiled slightly. "He's had such a great race today, and after announcing his retirement I think it's well deserved. It gives it a bit more of a personal meaning, he's not tying to prove himself to any team Princapls, he's just driving for himself. I like that."

A graphic popes up on the screen, and Crofty shifted in his seat."Radio message from Zia Powman. "

"What the **** was that? The engine just cut?"

"We're looking into it, just keep focused, you've got Perez behind, gap is 17.521 seconds"

"Copy."

"Oh No! So Powman's engine, has cut, meaning it's stopped working for a few seconds. My word this isn't a very lucky race for the young rones or it Martin."

"No, you can see, the gap T Perez has dropped again, from 17.5 to 16.8"

"Two seconds Martin, Powman's back on the radio ."

"**** again! What am I meant to do of the engine keeps ******* cutting?"

"Just stay calm, stay calm Z. You're on Lap 80, 7 laps left."

"Yeah well of the engine cuts again we might have one lap left. What's my gap to Perez now?"

"10.349."

"Z?"

"Yeah copy."

LAP 84

"It's going mate I can't keep this engine up I can see Checo in my wing mirrors."

"Okay, try and lay off up shifting if it cuts again."

"Copy. What's my gap?"

"Gap to Perez bi's now 4.216."

"Okay copy."

LAP 86

"Oh I'm sorry guys. I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry Z, just bring her into the pits for me alright? It's not your fault."

"We were on for a win by there. Ahhh. Sorry guys."

"Absolute disaster for Powman and RedBull, they've had to retire the car, with one lap of the race to go. A race in which they were first. I feel for Powman and for Russell right now." Crofty said with a sigh, as they watched Powman cruise up to the Redbull Mechanics.

"It was such a promising race for both of them, but now their both dissapointed."

"You can see on your screen, Zia getting gout of the car. This is absolutely heartbreaking."

GEORGE SAT IN his hotel room, laying on the sofa, hands over his eyes. He could have won that race. If he hadn't have had to pit, he could have won.

There was a knock on his door. He sighed and slowly made his way towards door, opening it, only for his mood to get worse. "What?"

"I just- I'm sorry, about your race."

George frowned. "Why? My bloody puncture aloud you to take the lead. Congratulations."

He went to slam the door, but Zia pressed her hand against it, oushong or back open. "Hey, this race didn't go well for either of us."

"Oh really? How come it didn't go well for you then Powmam? Did you not perfect a corner? Did you not finish with a big a gap to the car behind as you wanted?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his mouth.

Zia scoffed. "Did even you stay, to look at who won?"

George shook his head. "I didn't fancy seeing the words 'Powman' and 'First' next to eachother."

"Well, good thing for you, they weren't. I had mechanical failure. So try 'Powman' and 'DNF'." She shook her head slightly, backing away from the door. "Forget I ever tried being nice to you."

George sighed as Zia walked away, before stepping out onto the hallway. "Powman wait."

Zia stopped and turned around. "Why? You clearly don't want to talk to me, I didn't really want to you but I thought I'd try to at least be civil. God I thought after you apologised for the Mugello incident you wanted to be civil."

George couldn't say anything.

"We were, half fine afterwards." Zia continued, not realising she was letting all of her feeling out on a rant. "We'd tolerate eachother for Alex's sake. But you know what maybe the next time I'm with Alice and Alex and you walk in the room, I'll just leave."

She turned on her heel and began to walk back towards the elevator, despite George still calling after her. She turned around again, but this time continued walking.
"Congratulations on your points by the way. "

She turned back around, and got into the elevator. She pressed the button she needed and watched George through the gap in the doors as they closed. Once they had slammed shut, Zia could feel a tear fall, before she quickly wiped it away.

"Fottuti britannici." she said to herself. As the elevator continued to move upwards, towards her floor.

pain.

I went and rewatched the highlights for this race so I could write this chapter

✨pain✨
🙂

this was written at 1 am and I have not proof read it so I apologise for any spelling mistakes