FP1, FP2 AND FP3 went perfectly for lamborghini.

isabel bounced between p1 and p2, and noah held p5. the times had all been averaged out, and the top 10 classification for free practice was:

carlos, isabel, charles, max, lando, noah, checo, lewis, esteban and then daniel.

lewis and checo had dealt with mechanical issues but those had been fixed and were ready for qualifying in a few minutes time.

"you're up, isabel," harry told isabel with a warm smile as he tapped the top of her helmet like he usually did. "go get 'em."

"roger that," isabel winked at her engineer before flipping her visor down and pulling out of the garage to join the other drivers that were already on the track.

the track in albert park was chaotic every year. the straights were narrow and therefore traffic built up easily a lot worse than it normally was during qualifying.

however, isabel had still made it to q3 and so did noah.

"no time to go again," harry said over the radio. "you're starting p3 tomorrow."

isabel nodded to herself as she let her car slow. "and noah?"

"p6." isabel loudly cheered when she heard her race engineer speak. "first ten is leclerc, verstappen, you, hamilton, norris, noah, russell, ricciardo, ocon, sainz."

not good enough to beat max, she inwardly grumbled. but still good enough. she then smiled brightly as she completed the cooldown lap. noah made p6! fucking incredible!

as soon as she pulled into the pitlane and parked her car, isabel immediately threw herself at noah. "you did it!" she cheered, voice muffled by her helmet still being on.

noah laughed as he wrapped his arms around his mentor. "i did it!" he sounded more in shock than anything. "i did it!"

x

SLOWLY, ISABEL JOINED THE formation lap as soon as she rolled out of the pitlane.

it was the first daylight race of the year, which was a little different when isabel had grown accustomed to the night races because of bahrain and jeddah. the air was cooler than it had been in the last two races and the track was streaked with a thin coat of water from the rain that had fallen throughout the morning. although it was coming into late afternoon now, the track wasn't fully dry.

"please tell noah to be careful," isabel said as she hit the radio button. "track is still damp."

"copy that, belle," harry nodded to himself. "take your own advice."

isabel laughed softly before hitting the button again to disconnect. she overtook certain cars during the lap until she was in the right position to roll into the p3 grid spot behind her brother once again.

it wasn't long until all the cars were lined up on the grid and the lights began flickering to life above her. everything in her stilled as soon as all the lights were illuminated and then quicker than lightning, isabel slammed her foot on the accelerator the second the extinguished.

"here we are in albert park for the 2022 australian grand prix. and it's lights out and away we go!"

lewis was pressuring isabel through turn one, sticking closer to her than she was comfortable with. he had a lot more experience than she did so defending him was always a challenge, especially when it came to the turns. even more so when it was turn one on this circuit. turn one and turn 15 were isabel's worst enemy when it came to the albert park circuit.

luckily, lando had pushed forward and started applying pressure to lewis, allowing isabel to create a bit of distance so that she could close the gap with max.

lap fifteen. after successfully making it through turn two, max activated drs once he was fit to and attempted to overtake isabel. she had overtaken him during lap thirteen and was comfortably sitting behind her brother whilst trying to stop all of max's attacks. unluckily for max, she managed to defend him on the straight and up into turn three and four.

after turn sixteen, max was able to attempt to overtake her with drs again, and this time he succeeded, entering lap sixteen in p2.

lap twenty-six. after the green flag was waved to signal that the safety car was over after two laps, the fight between charles, max and isabel immediately picked up once again.

with charles in p1 still and max sitting in p2, max began to push for first position. going wheel to wheel with charles, the red bull driver tried to force his way past charles on turn one and then again in turn two, but the monégasque managed to hold his position.

isabel was more focused on george russell. george made his way up the track and was sitting in p4 behind her, trying to battle his way past her. isabel held her ground though, checking her mirrors religiously and moving her car side to side to block his attacks. glancing up ahead at max throwing attacks at her brother, she hoped that whoever was in the alpine behind george would start attacking him soon so that she could push forward more and launch her own attacks to gain p2.

lap thirty-six. checo had moved up a few positions and was now sitting behind george in p5, but that hadn't done much to get george off isabel's car.

george gained on isabel during the straight that led up to turn eleven, closing the distance even further until he was right behind her. around turn eleven, isabel slammed her brakes a little too hard, which — combined with the damp track — let george go wide around her and forced her into p4.

"four seconds to russell," her radio chimed. "go for an attack when possible."

isabel nodded and flicked her gears higher before checo got too close to her.

lap thirty-eight. it took a lap, but isabel finally was able to overtake george and slip back into p3. as she did so, she laughed when george flipped her off because she knew he was kidding and quickly mirrored his action in response before working on closing the gap to max.

during sector three, isabel activated drs after turn sixteen and effectively overtook max just as she crossed the line.

lap thirty-nine. max remained closely behind isabel as they reached the area of the track between turn ten and turn eleven. max was getting way too close for isabel's liking, even closer than lewis was during the start of the first lap.

just as she went to shift into a higher gear, her body jolted forward and pulled a gasp from her throat as her car suddenly started to spin off the track. with quick reaction speed, she let go of the steering wheel just before it began to wildly jerk and her car slammed into the barriers.

unknown to her as the momentary shock settled in, max's car was also skidding across the opposite side of track, but he had managed to brake before he hit anything. max had gotten too close and his front wing had gone straight into the back of her car, taking them both out of the race as the cars behind them continued on and stole p2 and p3 from them.

isabel's radio chiming brought her back to the situation at hand. "belle?" it was alicia this time, not harry. "are you okay?"

"uh huh," isabel groaned, her body beginning to ache from the impact. "i can smell something, though."

she was already unclipping herself from the car as alicia said, "get out of the car, there's a crew comin' over to you now."

"fuck!" isabel shouted as soon as she had her seatbelt free. she slammed her hands against the steering wheel once before climbing out of the car and moving away just as a crew with fire extinguishers got to her. they started spraying the engine as a precaution.

dropping to the floor against the barrier, isabel held her head in her hands. a yellow flag had been waved and was causing all the cars to slow, but isabel wasn't moving until the crane got there to remove her car from the track.

"there's going to be a safety car, charles," charles was told as he began to slow, "there was a collision between isabel and max, but both are out of their vehicle and look okay."

charles sighed in relief. "keep me updated on isabel," he told his team.

"copy that."

noah's eyes blew wide when he drove past the crash, maneuvering his way around the debris on the road. he winced at seeing isabel crouched on the floor. "she alright?" he asked through the radio.

"should be," alicia told the boy. "you're doing great, kid, don't worry about isabel. she's all good."

"understood," noah began to swerve his car to keep his tires warm as he remained in p6 thanks to the safety car.

slamming the palms of her hands into the sides of her helmet, isabel's body shook with frustration as the truck came to pick up her car. since it wasn't too big of a cleanup and both cars were out of the way of the track, a red flag wasn't really necessary, but she was surprised there wasn't one. fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! she screamed internally as the frustration bottled further and began to turn into anger. "fucking stupid," she spat, lifting her head just in time to see max's tense form begin to leave the track. "vaffanculo."

x

ISABEL KEPT WELL AWAY from everyone the moment she entered the pitlane. the ferrari and lamborghini teams gave the girl sympathetic looks that she ignored as she passed the garages. no one was able to stop her once she walked past both garages and went straight into red bull's.

her vision flashed its usual crimson when she caught sight of a pissed off max verstappen. "what the fuck?" she questioned as she stood right in front of him. "your stupid fucking plan backfired because you took both of us out!"

"what plan?" max spat, eyes blazing as he glared at her. "you were in my way."

"your way?" she laughed bitterly. "i was in front of you."

max rolled his eyes, "maybe learn to drive faster, then."

isabel's mind detached from her actions. she reached out to shove him backwards, a feeling of satisfaction flowing through her when he stepped back. she stepped forward and shoved him again, her hands connecting with the white fireproofs he had on under his race suit. "fuck you," she was seething as the anger and frustration fueled her. "fuck—" he gripped her wrist before she could push him again and stopped her, shoving her backwards and letting go of her.

"get the fuck out of my garage," he said. "you're fucking crazy."

she only laughed more, mind foggy as her vision turned darker. "i'm crazy? you ran me into a fucking wall, max. could your ego not handle the heat?"

max said nothing and turned to his driver room, walked in, and slammed the door shut.

isabel, surprised that not a single person in the red bull garage had stopped her, turned on her heel and walked out of the garage. a cameraman was there with the camera already pointed at her: he had witnessed the whole thing. great, abu dhabi all over again

tori was there, arms crossed and looking drained. you caused that, isabel told herself in a reprimanding tone, you fucked up again. isabel said nothing as she walked straight past her and walked into her garage, ignoring everyone until she was in her driver room with the door locked.

collapsing down to the floor against the door, isabel felt her chest shatter.