Is This What It’s Like To Ice Skate?
The sky was a dark gray as William made his way over to his garage. He felt well rested but with the conditions that he would soon have to face. He felt that the well rested version of himself would not last for very long. (Gonna make an effort to call him William more instead of Hunt).
"Good morning William," Mark greeted.
"Good morning." William replied.
"Today would be the day for qualifying simulations but since qualifying is going to be about as similar condition wise as a duck is to a banana. We'll do race sims today, so give your mechanics time to fuel up your car and we'll send you out. Your runs will start on a set of mediums as most teams are expected to do, and about 40 percent of the run is done, we'll switch onto the hards."
"Alright." Hunt said. "By the way, any chance that we'll see rain early today? Sky looks mighty dark outside."
"Rain should stay away for this session. Though I should tell you that the rain is expected to continue for long enough that tomorrows race is expected to start intermediated before crossing over to slicks"
"Ok."
"Now get ready to get in your car, the mechanics are almost finished."
With that FP3 began. Hunt's first thought heading out onto the track with heavy fuel and cold tires was 'Holy shit, I'm so gonna crash.' However, contrary to his beliefs, aside from a bit of sliding while warming his tires, he was able to run his laps smoothly. However, the laps were cut short as McLaren's Daniel Riccardo misjudged a corner and found himself embedded in a wall.
Mark: Yellow flag! Yellow flag! Daniel's hit the barrier into Turn 16, so take it easy on these next few laps.
Hunt: Copy.
Once Daniel's car was removed from the track, the green flag was waved and the session resumed. The rest of the session was a mundane session for Hunt, his fastest lap bagging him a P8 finish. His teammate did about the same, with his fastest lap bagging him a P9. Little did anyone know the chaos that would unfold in the following session.
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Qualifying
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It was dark when Q1 started, so drivers were in a rush to get their lap times in. William had been lucky and was one of the first drivers out on the track. He had just managed to finish his lap before the rain started to fall. And once the rain started falling, no one managed to improve their lap.
Mark: Ok. So you're through to Q2.
Hunt: Who's missed the mark?
Mark: So it is your usual suspects, the two Sauber's and Haas's along with Perez shockingly missing the mark as well.
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Q2
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The rain had started small, and the weather report had said that it was going to stay like this for the majority of Q2. However, with the current state of the track even light rain would make it so much worse, and since no team wanted to risk getting caught out. All 22 drivers had immediately queued up to get a run early for Q2. Contrary to his luck in Q1, Hunt did NOT get a good place and ended up almost at the very back. But, a good run from Hunt had placed him P5 but by the time the other drivers did their 2nd run, Hunt had fallen into P12. As Hunt started his 2nd run, he got a message he never wanted to hear.
Mark: Hunt, the rain is going to get worse. This is probably going to be your last run. This is do or die.
Hunt: Alright, leave it to me.
Hunt put up a mighty effort, setting 2 personal bests in the first and third center. And even going purple in the 2nd sector as he put up his best lap yet in an effort to get into Q3. As he was barreling down the main straight, he had nearly gained half a second on his previous lap.
Mark: Hunt. That was a 1:43.864, that put you…P6. Congrats, your into Q3
Hunt: YES BOYS! GOOD JOB!
Mark: Let's get the car back to the garage and start prep for Q3.
Eliminated in Q2 were the 2 Alpha Tauri's, William's and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
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Q3
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By the time drivers were allowed to line up for the start of Q3, the sky's had opened up, and rain was pouring out onto the track.
Hunt: Holy s***. It's wet out here man.
Mark: Yep, radar shows it might lighten up, but it will still be full wet conditions.
Hunt: Really?
Mark: Yeah, it's gonna be one hell of a session.
Q3 started and all the drivers headed out for a quick lap just to see where they could push the limits. This of course led to a few drivers missing corners and ending up on run-offs. But once the fast laps started coming in, the times started tumbling. More and more drivers started pushing the limits and soon enough drivers were setting times in the 1:42's
As qualifying drew to a close, the drivers made a mad dash to get 1 final fast lap in.
"First across the line is the Jaguar of George Russell, He moves to P6. Next across the line, Sebastian Vettel, only good for P7. Next in line, Ocon, he improves from P8 to P6, now his teammate Fernando Alonso, he moves up to 6th bumping his teammate down to 7th. Now here comes Charles Leclerc, doing well, 2 green sectors and purple in the last. Is it enough to take provisional pole off Max Verstappen? YES IT IS. Now here comes his teammate, he's gone even quicker! CARLOS SAINZ TAKES POLE. As it stands right now, it will be a Ferrari front row lock out. Here comes Mercedes of Vandoorne, can he do anything about this? No he can't, good enough to P4. Now his teammate Valtteri Bottas, only fast enough for P3. Now to Max Verstappen can he do anything? Through the final corner, NO IT'S ONLY GOOD ENOUGH FOR P2! Last across the line. Hunt has had an absolute rocket of a lap, green in the first, purple in the second, through the last corner can he improve from his P10? YES HE CAN! WILLIAM HUNT HAS SET AN ABSOLUTE SCREAMER! WILLIAM HUNT! THE ONLY ROOKIE ON THE GRID, HAS TAKEN POLE POSITION! What a lap from him!"
Mark: THAT'S POLE POSITION! POLE POSITION! WHAT A LAP!
Hunt: What. You're joking right? Mark. Don't joke about this.
Mark: Hunt. We're not joking. You're P1.
Hunt: You're serious?
Mark: Yep. P1 Hunt, P1. Incredible lap.
Hunt: YES! LETS GO! Where's Russell?
Mark: P9. Russell is P9.
Hunt: Good work team, great laps. Woo!
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The Grid
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P1: William Hunt
P2: Carlos Sainz
P3: Max Verstappen
P4: Charles Leclerc
P5: Valtteri Bottas
P6: Stoffel Vandorne
P7: Fernando Alonso
P8: Esteban Ocon
P9: George Russell
P10: Sebastian Vettel
P11: Lando Norris
P12: Lance Stroll
P13: Jack Aitken
P14: Pierre Gasly
P15: Nicholas Latifi
P16: Yuki Tsunoda
P17: Daniel Riccardo
P18: Sergio Perez
P19: Kimi Raikkonen
P20: Callum Ilott
P21: Mick Schumacher
P22: Nikita Mazepin