| Fan Fiction |
by SeventhStar
I arrived in Melbourne just in time when they almost began to do qualifying. There was something that I need to manage in Japan related into spare part changing for the car. I even didn’t able to take a rest for a minute first after a couple hours fight time. I checked on my watch. The last free practice almost over, David kept e-mailed me about the progress.
Yoong at 17th position.
Wu at 10th position.
Ten? What an amazing performance from him. Alex even got beaten by him. I smiled when I read the email from my I-Pod. He was indeed a gifted driver. If I had to compare him now, I even dared to compare him with Kimi Raikkonen. I remembered how Kimi amazingly ever bring a point with using a very bad car.
Our car was not as bad as Kimi’s in the past. But still this car couldn’t be compared with Ing-Renault team with Nelson Piquet as a rookie in the cockpit. Yup…. Nelson Piquet Jr. A son of Nelson Piquet S, an ex-World Driver Champion in the past. I checked on David comment. He said “Who will think a rookie from Brunei will beat a Nelson Piquet from Renault?”
I typed on my I-Pod. “I did think like that. I always believe with my driver.”
I asked the taxi driver to hurry up and he said. “I’m not a Formula One driver. Safety is everything Mam.”
I laughed and said. “Did you know how safety Formula One is?”
He seemed didn’t believe and trust that I knew better than him. “So do you know Mam?”
“I’m a race engineer there. Of course I know.”
Then the taxi driver increased the speed. I just laughed when finally he obeyed me.
I came with a big bag in my hand and immediately rushed into the garage. I wore my overall and ran into the telemetry board. “How was it?” I asked
David answered me. “Pretty good, the modification that we had done in fuel tank and also about the formula that we used in fuel seemed work quite well.”
“Nice.” I kept looking on the telemetry board.
When I reached there, unfortunately I missed the last free practice. In Formula One race there were 3 free practice sessions. First and second FP (Free Practice) held in Friday and the last free practice being held in Saturday, an hour before qualifying session. Usually free practice was a key for qualifying successful, mostly in the last free practice because the condition of the track, the weather will be the closest one into the qualifying condition. We could do major changes for qualifying setup from the last free practice.
For the first two free practices, usually we do analyze about what tyres that we will be use for the race and qualifying. There were 2 kinds of dry tyre, soft one and hard one. The soft one we used in a short run and the hard one we used in long run. The question was… which one is better in the track? Soft or hard one.
I turned my radio communication on. Before I came, David as a chief engineer replaced me to be his race engineer.
“Chun. 15th. 15th.” I said to him. That means he was in the 15th position.
Qualifying session consist of the 3 rounds. The first round will eliminate the bottom 5. The second round will eliminate the next bottom 5. In the last round the rest of the drivers that not being eliminated (10 drivers) will do the best that they can do to get a better position for start tomorrow in the top 10.
“Okay.” He answered me. Long time didn’t hear his voice makes me feel weird when heard him again.
“Pitstop on the next lap, we want to reduce the fuel that you had to make the car going faster.”
I saw in the telemetry board, he reduced his speed. There was a speed limitation in the pit line, actually the driver didn’t need to control the speed manually because there is a button of “pit stop” on the steer so the speed of the car will automatically changed into the speed that had been limited by the rule. But sometimes the driver forget that they were in the pit line so they still on the race mode car and if it happened, they could be get penalty from FIA because it was so dangerous to be fast in pit line.
“I didn’t sure I could make until the second round of qualifying.” He said to me when he was in the pit stop.
“You have to be sure. I’m sure you can. Don’t think anything, push the car like it has no limitation.”
And he didn’t disappoint me. Finally, he managed to go until 2nd round. But because of the limit of the car it self, which we knew for sure he just get in 12th position for tomorrow’s race.
If I compared with Alex’s Yoong result, definitely Chun was better. Yoong even didn’t able to pass the first round.
I was so exhausted after the qualifying session was over. A lot of things in my mind such like a strategy for tomorrow and how to prepare Chun for faced reporters after his great qualifying result.
Perhaps it because of the jet lag. I flied over from Japan to Australia and I even didn’t sleep on the plane because I worried about how the free practice will be going without me. Actually 3 days ago I had arrived here but sudden call from Matsumoto made me had to fly to Japan once more.
When I wanted to start the post qualifying meeting, I felt so tired and suddenly it all black in my eyes. I fainted.
An hour later I woke up. I felt a warm hand beside me. I opened my eyes slowly and I saw him. I saw Baron beside my bed.
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[A/N]: Sorry for a short chapter… I had to separate this chapter into two chapters because too much that I need explain in the race until I confused how to merge them all lol… I will be back tomorrow because I need sleep now… ha ha :P Comments are welcome as usual ^^. I was really in trouble because too much that I want write here >_<