Chapter 384: 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix | Sunday | Race III

"We waited for more than a hundred days; what is one lap more, Martin..." Croft said as the cars could be seen swerving left and right to warm their tires as they went around the track for another formation lap. While the commentators were just excited that they were only one additional formation lap from finally watching a race after a long wait, Gasly was currently feeling very excited. He had been rewarded with an opportunity to already start one position closer to the podium, thanks to Perez now being relegated to starting from the pit lane.

Now, all that was needed from him was to have a perfect start and for one of the three at the front to make a mistake, and he would be in contention for a podium.

This new thought resulted in him nearly forgetting the matter that had been eating at his focus, moving it to the back of his mind by the time he entered back into his grid position after a few final burnouts.

He looked at the now-empty grid position in front of him, giving him a clear path all the way to Verstappen in P1, as his visor reflected the flashing red lights from the cars in front.

After a short moment, he closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was fully focused on the five lights at the top of the hanging structure, ready for the race start.

....

"Finally, we get the green flag and we can finally get the season off and running. Five lights on and IT’S LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO! MAX VERSTAPPEN AGAINST HAMILTON AS THEY BOTH GET AWAY QUITE EVENLY! HAMILTON TUCKS BEHIND THE RED BULL, AND PIERRE GASLY IS ALREADY ALONGSIDE BOTTAS!

HAMILTON GOES INTO TURN ONE BEHIND VERSTAPPEN, WHILE BOTTAS IS BEING CHALLENGED BY GASLY AS CHARLES LECLERC KEEPS HIS PLACE AS WELL! AHEAD OF MCLAREN AND TSUNODA, WHO IS BEHIND HIM LOOKING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY, FOLLOWED BY THE MCLAREN OF DANIEL RICCIARDO, WHO’S GOT HIS TEAMMATE LANDO NORRIS TO KEEP HIM COMPANY AS THEY HEAD NOW DOWN TOWARDS TURN FOUR! AND THA OOOFFFFF!!!!!!!

IT LOOKS LIKE ONE OF THE HAAS CARS HAS GONE OFF AND CRASHED AT THE REAR! AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN NIKITA MAZEPIN..."

As Croft commented, the feed showed a plume of dust being raised at the rear of the convoy before a double yellow flag was raised. The race was still allowed to continue at the front since they were already past the crash position.

{Mazepin has crashed. We expect a safety car. Overtake before then,} Pierre Hamelin, Gasly’s race engineer, said as the radio communication could be heard by Fatih, who was tapped into the team radio system.

Although the first sector was under a double yellow flag due to Mazepin’s crash, the race director held off on calling the safety car, wanting the race to continue as they verified the situation. This meant there was a little window where overtakes could happen by using the overtake button and battery. Normally, this would mean they would suffer a loss of power, but with the safety car to be deployed, all of the repercussions would be fully avoided.

Gasly didn’t even respond as they went through turn four. He immediately offset his entry by going wide and having a tighter exit, immediately putting him on the side of Bottas’s rear tires. The moment he was assured that he had traction, he hit the overtake button, using all of the additional energy, which helped him massively.

By the time they started going through the turn 5, 6, 7 sequence, what started as a side-by-side into turn five turned into Gasly in the lead by him having the inside line into turn six. By the time they came out of turn seven, he was already ahead of Bottas and officially in a podium position.

As Fatih excitedly but silently pumped his fist, he watched as the feed showed Leclerc also trying to attempt the same move on Bottas but failing as Bottas fully shut it down. The feed then changed to show the two McLarens going side-by-side as they exited turn ten into the long straight, only for the safety car icon to appear on the screen.

All the cars slowed down in unison, and only then did those inside the race operation center celebrate for a moment, as their position had been secured by the safety car and they wouldn’t suffer the loss of power on the long straight.

’Mazepin spun, but it is Gasly instead of Leclerc who is in P3 at the moment,’ Fatih said as he finally lowered his hand. The opening lap itself acted as enough of a guarantor of his hypothesis that most of the events, so long as he was not directly in them or they were things he had directly changed, would continue happening.

With that question now answered, he returned to focusing on the race. He could now watch the race with freshness since, unlike the past races that he had already watched multiple times in his past life, he was finally going to experience a race that still had some uncertainties in it, thanks to his actions.

........

"The hazard is now finally clear and the safety car is coming to an end. If Perez manages to catch the end of the tail of the safety car, he will have completed a free pit stop, and with the speed he is currently chasing the snake, he will have hotter tires," Croft could be heard saying excitedly as Perez pitted to change his tires during the safety car.

The feed changed to show Myländer, or "Mr. Safety Car," driving the safety car as he slowly peeled into the front, while Verstappen took his place, controlling the pace to give them time to return to the pits.

"This is one of the worst tracks to be on the front at the safety car restarts because the straight is so long that you will essentially be towing the drivers behind you for the entire straight," Croft said as Max could be seen weaving left to right rapidly to warm up the tires.

"Max knows at some point he has to put his foot down on the final corner and try to disappear into the front, but Lewis knows the same OOOh, that is smart," Brundle, who was about to point out why this track was bad for such things, said. Max went through the final corner, but he had yet to accelerate and mark the green flag, as he was still swerving left and right even after entering the start-finish straight.

"That is smart. He is definitely going to delay it until the last moment before accelerating, shortening the straight as much as possible," Croft followed as Max kept swerving on the straight.

"And they can’t overtake him, but he’s gotta go eventually. And now Hamilton tucks behind him as he moves rapidly to the left to try and cut to the top, and IT IS THREE ABREAST INTO TURN ONE! VERSTAPPEN, HAMILTON, AND THEN GASLY ON THE OUTSIDE, AS NORRIS IS CHALLENGING LECLERC, HAVING WENT THROUGH YUKI! AND ONE OF THE HAAS CARS LOOKS TO BE GOING OFF THE TRACK, AND WE NOW HAVE A VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR..."