Page 6 of Overtake
“Nico—”
“¡Basta!Let me drive.” He focuses on managing the car. “Something’s changed. The rear’s fighting me.”
“We’ll check it.”
Ahead, another battle unfolds—a dark green car with pink accents against a red and white machine. Petra Hayter and Lynch Sutton, fighting for P2 behind Reece Pritchard, who nailed the timing on his tire change. As the track dried, he switched to mediums while others stayed on worn inters, building a gap that should hold unless there’s a safety car.
Petra’s lines are perfect and her defense is textbook clean. Everything Wyn’s last move wasn’t.
Roxana’s voice intrudes. “Telemetry shows minor aero loss.”
That explains the loose rear end. Wyn’s move didn’t leave Nico’s car unscathed.
“I’m sliding in the corners.”
“It’s not critical. Manage it.”
“Where’s the problem?”
“Floor, we think.”
Puta madre.
As he closes on the battle ahead, his teammate’s blue and gold car nears Petra’s line. Wyn’s on the hunt for a podium at any cost.
“Rox, is he in DRS range of Petra?”
“Not yet, but he could get it this lap.”
“Remind him we need both cars to finish for constructor points.”
Silence is her reply because what do you say to the obvious?
Nico pushes harder, trying to close the gap before the inevitable happens.
Wyn edges closer and closer to Petra’s racing line. He’s reenacting the time he clinched the Formula 2 championship by running her into a wall. Not for the first time, either. Wyn Pritchard still has a spot on the grid because Graham Pritchard’s influence protects him from consequences.
But that protection can’t last forever. Wyn’s luck will run out.
“Gap to Wyn, three seconds,” Rox updates.
“Gap to Petra?”
“Five seconds.”
Not close enough to intervene. Not yet.
Maldita sea.Nico should be focusing on his own podium finish, not on distracting his teammate from causing a crash.
He squeezes everything from his car. The floor damage means less downforce, less grip, but Nico pushes beyond the car’s new limits.
“Sector 2, purple.” There’s surprise in Roxana’s voice. It means he’s got the fastest time of the field. “You’re outperforming the car,Conejo.”
Because he’s not just racing for position now.
Four seconds to the battle ahead.
Three point five.
