Formula 1: The GOAT

Chapter 283: Race Weekend | Saturday | Formation Lap Shenanigans

“Nine points. That is the gap between Kiern Jewiss and Fatih Yıldırım, having been reduced further from the eleven points due to the two he earned for taking pole position in today’s qualifying. As long as he finishes in first place and Kiern Jewiss finishes third, he will have finally ended the chase for the lead and become the target everyone will be chasing.

This is especially true for Jewiss, as he had a stranglehold on this title for a very long time, making many consider it a done deal. But Fatih has just thrown a wrench in that idea, despite starting from more than a hundred and eighty points behind. What a historic run,” Justin, who had finally had time to calm down from his praise of Fatih, said as the feed showed Fatih back in the pit lane.

He had returned the moment he finished his second lap and didn’t go out again, as no one could match his lap times by the end of the session, despite the track evolution.

“Are you trying to put a commentator’s curse on him or something?” Brad asked sarcastically.

“I don’t see many ways that he doesn’t come out on top of the championship table at the end of this weekend. If everything goes right, he should be the leader by the end of today,” Justin said, his tone filled with confidence, showing how much he believed in Fatih’s ability to maintain his consistency.

“Looks like you are taunting fate, but I hope you are right and things go well because the top four for Race 1 are a very interesting group. Next to him will be the driver he just replaced in P2 in the championship, Johnathan Hoggard, who is now five points behind Fatih.

He has every incentive to try to win this race to return to the second position and keep his chances for winning the championship alive. On the second row, we have the current championship leader, Kiern Jewiss, in P3, and a win here means he will extend his championship lead to seventeen points, so he has every incentive to go for the win.

In P4, we have Dennis Hauger, Fatih’s teammate and friend, so there is a chance that he will move to attack Jewiss and give Fatih some breathing room at the start, but that is only a guess because we have yet to see Team Arden give team orders,” Brad went into detail about just how exciting the race in a few hours was going to be, due to the stories that were present in just the top four alone.

“Now let’s hear what our title chaser, Fatih Yıldırım, has to say about all of this,” Justin said, smoothly transitioning the discussion as the feed changed to one showing Fatih standing in front of a reporter while holding a microphone.

……..

“I will drive as I always have: to the limits of what the car can handle and not more, even if it is possible. It is like eating all of your sweets now and suffering later when everyone is still enjoying theirs, so there will be no difference in how I will be driving.”

“Just because I outperformed everyone in the past doesn’t mean the same will happen today and in the following races. I might end up facing a driver who’s in the zone, and he might give me a tough fight, but I will still be doing my best to beat him or them.”

“Of course, I’m excited, as this has been my target from the start of the season. Being on the verge of taking the lead of the championship this weekend is a possibility I’m looking forward to, but it is not overwhelming to the point that I can’t drive well from nerves.”

“I don’t think about how things will go wrong on the track because that is needlessly wasting mental capacity on something I have no control over, when I could use that capacity for optimizing and improving everything that is in my hands. Paradoxically, that makes me better at handling the things that I don’t have control over if or when they happen.”

“Thank you for that, and we’ll talk to you later.”

……

“He is still filled with confidence to the brim when I would have been on the edge of my nerves. Maybe he is better at hiding it, but we will have all of our answers in a few minutes, as the countdown for the first of the three races is down to only five minutes. Do you think the time from the qualifying session to now was enough to cause the nerves of the top four to build up as much as possible, now that they have enough time to think about the implications and possibilities of the positions they are in?”

“This is the worst thing for a driver because there is this dread that comes over you with each passing minute that you get closer to the race. The more time between qualifying and the race, the heavier that feeling gets, so I’m sure most of the drivers are on the edge of their nerves, even more so for the top three, as they all have something to gain or lose, and everything is now left in their hands.”

“And we are one lap away from getting our answer as the time arrives and the drivers are sent on their formation lap to warm their tires and do final checks. You can tell how nervous they are, as Johnathan Hoggard finds himself in anti-stall, which is a very weird thing to happen at the start of a formation lap due to the low speeds they leave their grid positions at,” Justin said as the feed remained on Hoggard as other cars started overtaking him while he tried to deal with the situation.

As a result of this, Fatih was ahead by more than ten seconds since other cars initially waited for Hoggard to go and only moved when it was clear that it would take more time. Following the FIA regulations, they overtook him.