Chapter 313: Race Weekend | Sunday | Race III
{What position is Jewiss in?}
{Currently in P3.}
{Okay, keep updating me if he improves his position.}
{I will. We still have eleven laps to go, so we have time.}
{How long until they finish cleaning this up?} he asked as they started the second lap of the race behind the safety car, passing the beached car in turn one.
{We are on pace to restart the race at the end of this lap,} James answered, using the information they were collecting in real time through their spotter in turn one.
With that final piece of information, he returned his focus to the cars in front, which were non-stop weaving from left to right, trying to keep as much heat in their tires as possible because the rainwater and the slow speed they were driving at were constantly sapping away the heat from both the tires and brakes.
Fatih, on the other hand, could be seen through the feed as the calm car among the constantly weaving ones. Instead of swerving left and right, he had his feet on both the brakes and the accelerator, constantly generating heat from the brakes through friction, which allowed him to keep them warm while also radiatively heating the tires.
But doing so had its own downsides, which was the reason many drivers didn’t adopt this style of tire warmup, as the amount of heat generated was very abysmal compared to what could be generated through swerving. But for Fatih, this was his best option.
Depending on how much brake force he applied and at what speed he was driving, he could vary the amount of heat he generated in real time without locking the tires, something other drivers couldn’t do to the level of precision he could.
.............
{Where is Fatih?} Jewiss asked as he swerved left and right in P3. He was quite happy with himself, as he knew all he needed was to keep this position or move up to guarantee his title win.
{P8.}
{What? He already gained that much in such a short race?}
{He had a good start. Don’t worry about that, and focus on your race. You two are running different races, so don’t worry about where he is,} his race engineer said, trying to make him focus on his own race since he was already in a position that guaranteed him the title if he just kept it together. But knowing the mentality of his driver, he knew that was not going to be easy at all, so he had made sure to repeat it again and again since the pre-race briefing, did so now, and planned to continue doing it until the checkered flag.
{Keep me updated on his position so that I know if I can push more or not,} Jewiss said, completely ignoring those words as he had heard them enough.
{I will,} the race engineer said with no actual intention of doing so.
{What about the other two?} he asked about his teammates. As per their plan, if any of them found themselves with Fatih behind them, they were to delay, slow, and waste as much of his time as possible.
{Alvarez is in P7 and Tonteri in P5.}
When he heard that two of his teammates were still in front of Fatih, and one was directly next to him, he couldn’t help but feel excited.
{HAHAHAHA,} the only answer he gave on the radio was nothing but laughter, as that was enough.
.............
"And the safety car is coming in this lap as they have finished clearing the stuck car, and we will go racing at the end of this lap. Johnathan Hoggard is now taking over from the safety car as the pace car, controlling the pace of the entire grid until he decides when he will go for it. He has all of the advantage until the start-finish line because that is where overtaking will finally be allowed.
Knowing this, he is slowing the pack down to a near standstill, allowing the safety car to open a gap before he starts moving forward, swerving left and right, wanting to generate as much heat as possible. As they go through Stirling Bend, AND WHERE EVERYONE LEAST EXPECTED IT, HE PUSHES AND STARTS HIS RACE RESTART, CATCHING PASMA AND JEWISS BY SURPRISE! HE OPENS A GAP BY THE TIME THEY CATCH UP, AND IN THEIR REACTION, THEY HAVE WHEELSPIN!
HE IS NOW BENEFITING FROM THIS GAP THROUGH THE ENTIRE STRAIGHT, INTO THE FINAL CORNER, ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE START-FINISH STRAIGHT, AND AS HE GOES THROUGH THE TIMING LOOP, STARTING THE NEXT LAP!
FATIH, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS DRIVING SO CLOSE TO ALVAREZ THAT HE CAN SEE THE BOLTS ON HIS GEARBOX! THE ONLY THING STOPPING HIM FROM OVERTAKING IS THAT THEY HAVE YET TO CROSS THE TIMING LOOP! AS THEY ENTER THE START-FINISH STRAIGHT, FATIH STAYS BEHIND TO SLIPSTREAM FROM ALVAREZ AND MOVES TO THE SIDE TO MAKE THE MOVE JUST AS THEY CROSS THE START-FINISH LINE! THEY ARE NOW SIDE-BY-SIDE AS THEY BARRELL ACROSS THE REMAINDER OF THE STRAIGHT! WHO IS GOING TO BE BRAVE AND BRAKE LATER THAN THE OTHER?!
IT IS FATIH WHO BRAKES FIRST, AND ALVAREZ FINALLY DOES THE SAME, BUT HE DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH BRAKING SPACE! HE LOCKS HIS TIRES AS HE OVERSHOOTS THE CORNER, AND FATIH SLIDES IN FROM BEHIND THE SLIDING ALVAREZ INTO THE CORNER, TAKING THE POSITION! HE IS NOW UP TO P7, CHASING P6, WHICH IS HIS TEAMMATE, HAUGER, WHO IS A SHORT DISTANCE AHEAD OF HIM GOING THROUGH THE TURN-TWO HAIRPIN, DRUIDS BEND!"
Amidst Justin’s excited commentary, the radio communication between Hauger and his race engineer was heard.
{Fatih is behind you. Let’s not hold him up.}
{We’ll do it in the next straight,} Hauger answered.
{Thank you.}
"And just as we hear that, Hauger moves out of the racing line on the Cooper Straight, and Fatih moves to P6 before he enters the long straight. The situation is very interesting, as the two previous positions he had taken were either his fellow team member or Jewiss’s teammate, and the next two are also the same, as he is now chasing Paavo Tonteri in P5 with his teammate, Jack Doohan in P4. So he also only needs to overtake one person competitively and will gain two positions at the end of that."
{Gap?}
{3.2.}
