Novel Full Chapter 347: Silverstone XII
Chapter 347: Silverstone XII
When the final light went off, he immediately left his grid position, going around the track for a formation lap. A few seconds after he left, he could see Apollo in his rear-view mirror, leaving his P2 grid position as he followed him around the track.
While following the procedure of the formation lap as instructed, he also wondered how everything looked no different from Apollo actually being on the track, but he immediately chalked it up to everything being projected in his mind to make it look like a reality. After thinking about it, he realized it was something trivial compared to what his simulation ability allowed him to do while sleeping.
As he swerved left and right on the long Hangar Straight, he looked at the sky, trying to see if the clouds were getting darker and darker, and lo and behold, they were, increasing the possibility of rain during the race practice even more.
Although he wanted to ask on the radio, he knew that under the regulations, he was not allowed to talk to the pit wall, and vice versa, during the formation lap, unless there was an emergency, which the current situation did not count as.
When he finally came out of the final corner, he slowed to a crawl before pushing the accelerator aggressively to force the rear tires to do a burnout to clear out all the debris accumulated during the formation lap.
He then slowly
As he approached his
Per the regulations, the distance between each grid position is 8 meters, giving Fatih a 0.6-second advantage at F1 car launching speeds, but that was only under the condition that he reacted faster, if not at the same time, as the driver closest to him, or he would have a challenge from the start.
.........
"Now that is aggressive positioning," Horner, who was on the pit wall along with Helmut, James, and the performance engineer, said when the front camera angle showed how much Fatih had placed his car facing the right side of the track.
"...."
No one said anything as they were focused on the track as the lights started lighting up one after another.
...........
Beeeep.... Beeeep.... Beeeep.... Beeeep.... Beeeep....
When the fifth light lit up, Fatih was already in full focus with the engine revving high, waiting for the lights to go out. The regulations state it could go out at a preset random delay of anywhere between 0.2 and 3.0 seconds, and as if playing with them, the lights went out almost immediately after the fifth one lit up.
But he was not caught off guard, as he immediately dropped the first clutch, and with little wheel rotation, he left his pit box. He released the second clutch over a one-and-a-half-second duration once he was up to speed, immediately moving to the middle of the track and not going fully to the right side to cover Apollo.
It seemed Apollo had planned to go in Fatih’s opposite direction, so the middle of the track allowed him the freedom of movement to cover both sides if the distance closed, but his launch was near-perfect.
He arrived at the end of the straight and Turn One first. While in
He moved to the leftmost part of the track before turning the car, cutting the corner as much as possible as he went back to full power, before lifting again slightly for Turn Two, then braking heavily and earlier as he approached Turn Three and then Turn Four, The Loop. He was back on power and immediately upshifting as he looked at his mirrors before entering Aintree, finally arriving at the long Wellington Straight on full power.
Apollo, on the other hand, was very patient as he immediately tucked behind Fatih and used the
He closed the gap slowly with the help of Fatih’s
Not wanting to remain passive, Fatih used the inside line to his advantage as he
By the time they came out of Luffield, Fatih was still in front, having opened back nearly a second gap, but Apollo didn’t let him off. He remained behind him through Woodcote into the long straight in Fatih’s slipstream while once again using the overtake button for just two seconds, getting him closer and closer to Fatih.
As the straight was coming to an end and Copse Corner was coming at him rapidly, he moved to the left side of the track and lifted the throttle while also turning his steering wheel left by just one degree to
Apollo was forced to brake and lift more than normal as Fatih called his bluff and risked a crash if Apollo didn’t give him room. This lift-off gave Fatih a two-second gap by the time Apollo came out of Copse corner, giving him breathing room to focus on optimizing his
He had managed to survive the opening lap, unfortuantley this was not a one-lap stint, but a 52-lap race, and he needed to survive the remaining 51.