Chapter 48 Mateo
MATEO
“One last time, mate. Vamos.” I hear Wiley’s voice on the radio as I’m taking deep breaths to calm my nerves.
The bosses up there don't really care about that type of stuff, as long as it doesn’t affect their favorite drivers. Liam and I had to get a puncture in order for them to realize it would be best to stop the race and clean the track. Thank god, I’m not fighting for the championship title.
Now, Asher’s starting from first place, and I start from beside him, from the second place.
Since overtaking is slightly limited at this circuit, my best chance is overtaking Asher in the first corner.
It sounds quite literally impossible right now, but since Hayes will be on our asses, it’ll give me a good chance to fight Asher.
And 3… 2… 1… It’s lights out and away we go, one last time!
I step on the accelerator, reaching Asher, but as I predicted, Hayes is almost right next to us as well.
Their car is damn fast, and it doesn’t help me at this circuit.
We turn into the first corner, and I manage to overtake Asher, trying to close the space where he could fight back, even if he’s busy keeping Hayes behind him.
The last thing I need is an incident, so I’m not that desperate. I’m not fighting with Hayes, only Asher, so if anyone else other than Asher wants to overtake me, be my guest. I’ll happily let them pass, as long as I can see him in my mirror.
“Did something happen behind us? I see dirt fog.” I radio to Wiley, then I spot the yellow flag pop up on the side of the track.
“Yes, it’s a VSC now. I repeat, VSC.” Fucking great. Virtual safety car. Now Asher will have the chance to close up on me.
“What happened?”
“Aiden and Fred collided; they went off track.”
“Are they okay?”
“Yes, both are out safely.” I sigh, watching as the grid closes up on us.
I hope cleaning the track won’t last long, my tires will cool back, and then I’m fucked. Asher’s on a different compound, so if I can trick him at the restart, I’ll have a chance to fly away. If not, we’ll start the cat and mouse game.
As the VSC comes to an end, we’ve entered the 6th lap. It wasn’t a long clean, but it was enough to cool my tires. I tried to keep them alive and warm, but they couldn’t hold on for six laps.
When I restart the race, we’ve reached the worst part of the track, at least from my perspective.
We’re at the long straight, the best place to overtake on track, and Asher does it without any difficulties.
The good thing is that in the long run, this will benefit me, because I’ll have to pit later.
And given how many dangerous turns and corners there are on this track, another safety car would come in very handy. Not that I’m wishing that the others will collide, but it would be a good thing for me.
“Times, please,” I ask as we complete another lap. Hayes’s barely behind me, so either I let him pass to go after Asher and try to overtake him, and I could stick on their asses, or I fight him. But right now, the first option seems more optimal.
“Hayes 0.6 behind, 0.6. Asher 1.3 ahead, 1.3.” Fucking hell. Asher’s getting away. I have to make a decision now, or I can most probably say goodbye to winning the race.
“Which plan are we on again?”
“B, stick to B for now.” This is definitely a C plan, and they might hate me for it til the end of time if I mess this up, but I have to go on.
“I’ll go with plan C.” Wiley only sighs, not even trying to talk me out of it. I guess he knows by now it’s useless to try.
I step on the brakes, slowing down my car so Hayes can overtake me. He goes past me about half a lap later, then he steps on the gas to reach Asher. Perfect. Just the way I wanted it.
Hayes quickly reaches Asher, as there wasn't a really big gap between us. I watch them fight, back and forth, overtaking each other, then at one corner, Hayes goes off track.
“Was that on purpose?”
“We’re looking into it.” Every single thing needs to be analyzed now. I need to run a perfect race, and preferably overtake Asher at the next pit stop, but hopefully even before.
“It wasn’t on purpose. We reported it.” Nice. Let’s see how the FIA decides.
A couple of minutes pass, and Hayes has managed to overtake Asher. Since he basically gave his position back, he didn’t get a penalty for it, so now we’re back to plan B. Hunt down Asher.
He started on a different compound, and we’ve reached the window where he should be changing tires now.
I guess they’re hoping that the tires he started on will grain more on other cars, and he can go long with the tires he’s about to switch to.
I’m doing the exact opposite, using the hard compound first, to go long, then changing to mediums so that overtaking will be easier. May the best man win.
As the race goes on, we’re constantly overtaking each other, which degrades our tires a lot. His are probably worse, since, to my luck, there was another VSC deployed, and Asher changed his tires just before it happened.
“Don’t forget, Asher has a five-second penalty for unsafe release, so try to stay in that window.” How could I forget? My race depends on this.
If he goes out to pit again, there’s a chance he’ll finish second, and I won’t be able to overtake him. Then I can say goodbye to the championship title. Let’s hope he doesn’t have any more good tires and they won’t serve the penalty in the pits.
“Asher’s pitting. Seems like they’re serving the penalty.” Seriously? Fucking amazing.
“No!” I shout, already mourning the title. My god. I can’t believe this.
I step on the accelerator out of rage, wanting to reach him, to try and overtake him in the last eight laps, even though I have a low chance of that happening.
“Time?” I ask when I spot him coming out of the pits, right before me.
“He’s 1.9 ahead. 1.9,” Wiley answers, and I step on the gas, giving it my all.
Seven laps left. Six left. Five left. Four. Three. Two. One. And I just keep driving behind him, without success.
“And that’s P3. P3. Good job, mate.” I scoff, but appreciate his attempt to try and cheer me up.
“Yeah. Good job of me for losing the title.” I go on one last lap around the track, waving to the fans. I’m sorry I couldn’t do it.
“Mateo, FIA’s reviewing Asher’s pit stop,” Barney says on the radio.
“Why? What happened?” I try not to sound hopeful, but I’m guessing they’re reviewing it for a reason. “Hello? Can someone answer me, please?”