Chapter 412: Race Weekend | Saturday | Qualifying in Monaco III

"One minute and thirty seconds and counting down. No Mick Schumacher, due to chassis damage that is being inspected, as his teammate Nikita Mazepin will out-qualify him for the first time this season by default. He is currently nineteenth.

Ahead of him is Nicholas Latifi, followed by Ocon, with the bottom five being completed by Fatih Yıldırım, the debutant who is now in the middle of his warm-up lap following a mistake by this same man we are currently focusing on. If you are new to Formula One, this part of the session is focusing on the bottom five who will be eliminated at the end of Q1," David Croft continued with his commentary.

"We are only going to lose four, as Mick is not on the track. As Ricciardo moves up to ninth and Latifi improves, but only up to sixteenth, we see three personal best sectors from Alonso, but he still stays seventeenth as Hamilton improves on his sector one time while not improving on the middle sector..." Martin Brundle joined him, providing the constantly changing details of the situation.

....

Fatih continued with his warm-up procedure, but his eyes kept darting to something in front of him every few seconds.

The system screen was showing him the live countdown to the end of the session, and he was pacing his warm-up to cross the start-finish line just a few seconds before the flag was waved. Thanks to the system being able to show him the live time of the session, he could afford to take as much time as humanly possible and not rely on just updates from the pit lane.

{Thirty seconds to the checkered flag. We are on pace to start on time. Don’t worry,} James said on the radio as Fatih was already on the final sector, moving to open a way for the cars currently qualifying.

.......

"Will Vettel improve? I would imagine, but for now, he stays in 12th place. George Russell, who is in eleventh place at the moment, is now dropped down to twelfth as Lance Stroll improves on his final lap.

And here comes Kimi Räikkönen, trying to get out of that ’at-risk’ zone at the moment, and he crosses the line and goes ninth fastest, pushing Giovinazzi into the danger zone.

He might be the oldest man on the track, but that was a great lap.

And with a few seconds to the checkered flag, Fatih Yıldırım barely makes it in the nick of time, timing it perfectly as he slipstreams behind Giovinazzi, who has improved to P10 and is now in a safe position as he moves aside to let Fatih through to go on with his lap," David Croft commentated excitedly when Fatih made it in time.

The TV director was now fully focused on Fatih, who was now on the straight, having exited Turn 1, this time tucking behind the slipstream of Kimi Räikkönen as they went through the long rise in elevation.

......

"Please, no flags," that line of thought went out across nearly all of the Turkish citizens who were watching the session for free on TRT Sports as the Turkish commentator, who was fully on Fatih’s side, commentated excitedly upon seeing how Fatih was driving the lap.

"A purple for Sector 1 from Fatih as he beats Bottas’s sector one time by a tenth, which is thanks to the help of the slipstream as he now goes through Mirabeau, approaching one of the most important and technical sections where he can gain or lose time on the track.

He cranks the steering wheel to the limit, crossing his hands as he goes through the Grand Hotel hairpin, gets back on power as he goes through Mirabeau Bas, heading towards Portier, where he had been interrupted on his last attempt. But now there is no one, and he takes it very well as he enters the tunnel.

Checo Perez moves out of the way, letting Fatih continue on his way out of the tunnel, where you are flash-banged by lights as he now heads down towards the most difficult braking zone, and he brakes as late as possible while making the turn, going through the Nouvelle Chicane, not leaving any safety margin on the way as he took the corner back to another short straight as he rushed to Turn 12.

HE ONCE AGAIN SETS A PURPLE MIDDLE SECTOR, SETTING A 33.3 LAP TIME IN THE SECTOR AND IS ALREADY UP ON BOTTAS BY A TENTH AND A HALF AT THIS MOMENT AS HE GOES THROUGH FLAT OUT IN THE SWIMMING POOL HAIRPIN!

IT IS NOW HIS LAP TIME TO LOSE, AS HE HAS SET IT PERFECTLY FROM THE START! WHEN HE SHOULD BE FEELING THE MOST AMOUNT OF PRESSURE, HE IS HANDLING IT LIKE AN EXPERIENCED DRIVER, SHOWING NO SIGNS OF HIM BEING A ROOKIE AS HE NOW GOES THROUGH LA RASCASSE, DELIBERATELY GOES WIDE TO SET HIMSELF UP FOR ANTHONY NOGHÈS, AND HE OPENS THE DRS FOR THE FINAL TIME AS HE TAKES THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO THE START-FINISH LINE!

AND HE MOVES TO P1 AS HE SETS THE THIRD PURPLE SECTOR AND SETS A SECTOR TIME OF 18.6 AS HE BEATS VALTTERI BOTTAS’S TIME BY MORE THAN THREE-TENTHS! ON HIS FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION OF HIS CAREER, HE MADE AN INCREDIBLE FINAL LAP AS HE MOVES TO THE NEXT QUALIFYING SESSION! OUR CHILD HAS SUCCEEDED, HE HAS SUCCEEDED AND LIVES FOR ANOTHER DAY..."

The entire lap could be said to have been a nerve-wracker for anyone watching, because any mistake from him would have ended his qualifying. But as if the driver they were supporting had nerves of steel, he was driving like a madman, getting very close to all the barriers and taking the corners very aggressively, and it had finally paid off as he moved all the way to the top, beating Bottas’s time by more than three-tenths of a second.

...

{THAT’S US GOING THROUGH, AND WE ARE IN P1! YOU DID IT, YOU DID IT!} James shouted on the radio as Fatih started his cooldown lap, driving very slowly as he wasn’t sure if the fuel in the tank was enough to let him return to the pit without a problem.

{Now that we are through, what the heck was that with Mazepin?} Fatih responded with a completely different topic. Having finally dealt with something that required his full focus, he could now finally address what was, at the time, not an important enough matter to waste his time on.

{We have already reported it to the race director, and he is currently under investigation,} James answered, but obvious excitement could still be heard in his voice.

........

"That would have been good enough to get into Q3 if he did it in Q2," Franz Tost said as he looked at the 1:10.541 lap time flashing on the screen.

"We could have fought for pole with it as well," Perrone, Head of Race Strategy, answered as he shook his head with slight disappointment, because the lap was great, but the chances of Fatih now going through to Q3 were now very low.

"So what is the new plan?" Franz looked at Perrone and asked, as he was the one responsible for race strategy, together with the team back at the home factory.

"Scrubbed softs for the first half and the fresh mediums we have on the blankets are the plan at the moment," Perrone said without thinking about it at all, since it had also been considered during their strategy discussion.

Although it sounded like there wasn’t much of a problem, having to use medium tires in Monaco qualifying was a death sentence since the mediums were about four-tenths slower than the softs, meaning he would be entering Q2 with a four-tenth disadvantage against all drivers.

"Chances he goes through to Q3?" James asked this time.

"If he drives like he did and everything goes as perfectly as it did this last lap, we still have a chance, but it is still very low," Perrone answered.

"Do I tell him that?"

"No, don’t. We can console him later, but for now, we shouldn’t dampen his morale. Let him still believe that it is possible," Franz interjected, not wanting to rain on Fatih’s parade, who would definitely be currently pumped up with motivation and confidence.

......

"Scheiße," Toto Wolff said when he saw what Fatih had managed to pull from the brink of elimination.

He was deeply impressed by what he was seeing, and with a performance like this, he couldn’t help but feel bitter that he had not been aggressive enough in his pursuit of him.

While he was thinking about that, all of the team principals and engineers were surprised, just like he was, albeit each feeling different things.

Some were impressed, as they knew it was not easy for a rookie in his first qualifying session, done at Monaco nonetheless, while on the elimination bubble with no chance to do it again if he made a mistake, but he still went and, from that lap, pulled out the fastest lap of the session.

A few were not so impressed, and among them was Aston Martin, because as a result of that lap, Sebastian Vettel had been dropped among those who were eliminated, leaving only Lance Stroll on their team, killing any chance of their drivers helping one another to move to Q3.

"A million dollars per win? Looks like we might have to shell out at least one of them this season," Helmut said as he talked to himself while watching the slow-motion replay of Fatih driving so close to the wall, leaving nearly no gap at all.

But despite talking about the prospect of having to pay a million dollars, he had a smile on his face, as he was quite happy that Fatih made it into Q2 and in a very impressive fashion at that.

But among all of those people, no one was as impressed as his fans, who had come with very low expectations and with the aim of just supporting him on his debut. He had shown them something very impressive.