Chapter 413: Race Weekend | Saturday | Qualifying in Monaco IV

While the broadcast was on an ad break during the few minutes before Q2 was to start, the teams on the track didn’t rest, continuing with their operations.

Gasly was silently looking at Fatih’s final lap’s telemetry, speechless due to the unbelievable gap in lap times between the two of them.

Fatih’s fastest lap time of 1:10.541 that placed him in P1 and Gasly’s lap time of 1:11.560 that put him in P7 of the Q1 session had a gap of an entire second, or 1.019 seconds to be exact. In Formula One, for people driving the same car, that is an unimaginable gap.

It would have been understandable if Gasly was the one at the front and Fatih, as the rookie, was the one a second behind, but the opposite being true was unbelievable for everyone.

Although something had to go perfectly, including two slipstreams in different places for Fatih to set that lap time, it still wasn’t enough to explain an improvement of an entire second between them, and it was giving him a headache since it looked like Fatih was pulling it out of nowhere.

{Guys, it doesn’t make sense for me to be this slow compared to him. What is wrong with my car?} Gasly asked his race engineer on the radio, making it known that he wanted to know exactly why he was that much slower, and his voice telegraphed exactly what he was feeling.

{We are still checking for possible reasons, but we have none at the moment and nothing out of the ordinary on the data,} his race engineer, Pierre, answered after a few seconds of silence.

{I don’t believe that there is no problem with my car if this is the gap,} Gasly followed up, now not wanting to accept the answer he was given.

Although the two of them were teammates, they were also competitors. With all the advantages he had, both in mental capacity and experience in F1, being beaten by his teammate in his debut race was going to heavily damage his image in the eyes of anyone who might be interested in hiring him. It also wasn’t going to bode well for his mentality and competitive spirit.

......

"Whooooo," it wasn’t until he was in the garage that Fatih released a sigh of relief due to how close it had gotten, but he was also happy, as the lap felt very good.

{Scrubbed soft for when the track is opened and medium following that,} James updated him on the change of plans before he added, {We can get to Q3 with this, so don’t lose hope,} wanting to motivate him.

{I will be doing two push laps on the mediums, so when I return to the pit after the scrubbed run, the refueling and planning should be done with that in mind,} Fatih said, updating them on what he planned to do. With the plans now being interrupted, he could do that without much trouble.

{Understood, we will refuel you with six laps’ worth of fuel,} James answered a few seconds later, after receiving an answer from the head of race strategy.

{Thank you,} Fatih said just as he was dropped from the front and rear jacks while the mechanics still covered his soft tires with the blankets, waiting for a cue from Lisa, who was now out of the garage to direct Fatih on when to leave the garage to start the second qualifying session, which was a few seconds from starting.

..........

"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, as Q2 is a few seconds from starting. But the biggest surprise of all was the rookie, Fatih Yıldırım, delivering a brilliant lap that sent him to the top of the ranking in Q1, securing himself a position in Q2. During the break, we managed to get a clear look at his lap. What do you think about it, Martin?" David Croft started commentating upon returning from the commercial break.

"It was an unbelievable lap delivered under extreme pressure, and it made it clear to anyone what level of a driver he is. You know what this reminds me of?"

"Who?"

"Hamilton. He managed to get through to Q3 and start the race in P4, but if he can somehow get through into Q3 and deliver a lap of such a level, we might maybe see a re-creation of what Jacques Villeneuve had accomplished in his career and see someone get pole on his debut.

But the chances of that are still very low at the moment, as he now has to get through to Q3 with mediums, which no one else is planning on using on this track, giving him a nearly four-tenths-of-a-second penalty paired with a different feel of the car from the one he got used to on medium tires.

He is also going to be held back by that as well, losing time, so more than half a second is going to be lost from his pace," Martin Brundle went on, giving a detailed breakdown of his reasoning.

"It would be amazing if he can get to Q3 and let us see the performance he could achieve, but for now, it is time for everyone who has made it through to try and fight for a position within the top ten..." he said as the cars started heading out onto the track to start and set a banker lap as fast as possible, which for Monaco was going to be a very important security against any possible interruption during the session.

Drivers, one after another, started setting their laps at the opening of the session as the top position kept changing nearly every few seconds as someone finished their lap. Just a few laps in, Max Verstappen went to the top, while Fatih could only manage a P11 lap time before returning to the pit lane for refueling and a tire change.

........

{Any problem with the car?} James asked as Fatih was dragged back into the garage.

{No, why?}

{You lifted in some places, and we were wondering if there were problems,} James explained his reasoning for the question.

{Was practicing for the medium push lap and readjusting my braking positions,} Fatih explained the abysmal lap time, though he didn’t tell them his other reason, which was to avoid setting a good enough lap that the mediums might fail to set, which would force him to start tomorrow’s race on dead tires.

{Understood,} came as an answer from James.

The mechanics worked on adjusting his wing setup and changing the tires while keeping the now-installed medium tires on the car. They were actively refueling with the amount Fatih had asked for before the moment they were done, and he was let out from the garage without waiting for other drivers to do the same.

The mechanics watched as Fatih trundled on the fast lane, heading back to the track, wishing him well as they returned to the garage to watch how it would unfold.

.........

"Aren’t you thankful to me now?" Apollo asked Fatih, who was on the straight following Turn 1 that he cut.

"Yeah. I thought you were just messing with me, and who would think it would become important now?" he said as he referenced the mission Apollo had forced him to do in the simulation using his medium tires.

"If you time it right, you can start the second push lap just like you did with the final lap in Q1, so think about that," Apollo said before he disappeared, as he knew the hint alone was enough for Fatih to do something about it.

"Will keep that in mind, thank you," Fatih said before he accelerated and wove left and right, trying to put energy into the tires as he went around the track.

.........

"Fatih on the mediums starts his final qualifying lap with only eleven seconds on the clock, just in time for Verstappen, who is finishing his lap, to take advantage of the slipstream behind him to finish his monstrous lap of 1:10.650 as he moves to the top of the timing screen.

Fatih keeps dropping from his current position of P7, set on his first push lap on his medium tires, and he keeps dropping positions as the drivers on soft tires on an improved track continue improving on their lap times.

He is now down in P10 with four drivers still on their final laps and improving, as Charles Leclerc BEATS VERSTAPPEN AND MOVES TO THE TOP OF THE TIMING TOWER WITH A 1:10.597 LAP! HE ONCE AGAIN REMINDS EVERYONE THAT HE IS ONE OF THE FAVORITES FOR POLE!

BUT FOR THE ROOKIE, THIS LAP NOW BECOMES A LIFE-OR-DEATH LAP TIME, AS HE HAS NOW DROPPED TO THE ELIMINATION ZONE! AS ANTONIO GIOVINAZZI IMPROVES TO P10 AND DROPS HIM TO THE ELIMINATION ZONE, IF HE DOESN’T IMPROVE, HE NEEDS A TIME FASTER THAN 1:11.409!

BUT HE FAILS TO IMPROVE IN SECTOR ONE AND IS DOWN BY THREE-TENTHS OF A SECOND IN THAT SECTOR TO GIOVANTAZI, WHO IS ON THE CUTOUT TIMER! CAN HE MAKE UP THAT TIME IN THE REMAINING SECTORS, OR WILL HIS IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE END HERE TODAY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN?" Croft, in his element, kept building up the lap as the TV director focused fully on Fatih, who was at the moment going through the Grand Hotel hairpin in Sector 2 as he hung on by a thread.