Formula 1: The GOAT - Chapter 275: Race Weekend | Saturday | Qualifying
Chapter 275: Race Weekend | Saturday | Qualifying
{Gap ahead?}
{Ten seconds and pushing, so you can go for a push lap,} James answered as he looked at the track GPS data.
{Okay,} Fatih answered as he took the wide right-hander, Coram, with only a single corner remaining before he could go for a push lap.
…
“Now, it is time for us to see if him not having enough track time is going to be enough to level the field and give the other drivers the opportunity to fight for a pole position. Justin, take us through it,” Brad said as the radio communication between Fatih and James played, and the feed changed to focus on Fatih, who was now exiting the final corner.
“He has made sure that there is a huge gap… aaaaaand he is going for it,” Justin said as Fatih entered the Senna straight and pushed.
…
The moment he entered the start-finish straight, he immediately pushed and started moving up through the gears, passing the start-finish line in fifth before quickly reaching sixth gear as he moved to the left side of the track, reaching up to 215kph. He then just jabbed the brake at about twenty percent pressure, downshifting to fifth gear before getting back on the power as he started turning at 188kph, carrying all of that speed through the turn.
On the corner exit, where he had gone wide all the way to the left of the track, he remained on that side as he eyed the brake markers. The moment he arrived at his planned marker, he braked heavily at nearly ninety percent brake force while rapidly downshifting all the way to second gear.
He then started turning into the turn-two hairpin, taking it very tightly as he tried to remain on the inside line throughout the turn before getting back on the gas, but in a slow manner, while upshifting to third, then fourth gear.
Turn three was taken in fourth gear with just a lift before diving into the left-hander, slowly getting back on the power in twenty-percent increments, reaching one hundred percent acceleration at the end of the turn as he let the car get wide to the edge but keeping it within the track limits while upshifting to fifth gear.
The straight was of medium length, so he remained in fifth gear as he finished sector one and entered sector two in the middle of the track. He then braked with full force and downshifted to second gear while taking a wider entry into the corner, which allowed him to get back on the power earlier, to the point that he upshifted to third gear while still in the final parts of the corner, entering the short straight while immediately upshifting to fourth gear.
As the corner approached, he left it to the last moment before upshifting to fifth just as the corner started, then taking the Hamilton corner flat out in fifth gear back onto a short straight. He then braked heavily and downshifted to third gear as he took the Oggies right-hander.
Exiting onto the short straight, he upshifted to fourth gear and remained in it as the William corner came at him. He lifted from full throttle to twenty-five percent for a moment before increasing the throttle to forty percent in the middle of the corner, followed by fully giving it maximum throttle by the time he went wide on the exit, entering the long Bentley straight.
…
“Are we sure this is his first clean lap?” Justin paused in his commentary once Fatih entered the long straight and was upshifting all the way to sixth gear.
“Even I’m having a hard time believing it, but he is already two-tenths up on everybody who is in the middle of a push lap and in front of him,” Brad said after looking at the live qualifying timer.
“He is driving as if he had participated in all of the free practice sessions. However, the most difficult part is coming up, as the chicane where he was sent off the track is the next corner, and he is on the verge of arriving at it as his third sector has begun.”
…
The moment he passed under the bridge, he got off the throttle and applied thirty-five percent before downshifting to fifth as he started the turn. The moment the car was hooked and started turning, he eased on the brakes to ten percent while momentarily giving in five percent throttle.
He then jabbed the brake all the way to eighty percent and downshifted from fifth gear all the way to third before turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction and getting back on the throttle from the middle of the exit, going wide before upshifting to fourth and going flat out into the Bomb Hole, a wide right-hander.
On the exit, he shifted to fifth gear before taking the next right-hander by lifting to ten percent throttle before turning the steering wheel. He then started feathering the throttle, modulating it between sixty percent and fifty-five percent through the turn, keeping as much speed and momentum as possible before lifting fully and applying ninety percent brake pressure while downshifting to third.
He threw the car to the left, deliberately missing the apex and going wide on the exit. Finally, he entered the start-finish straight and started upshifting all the way to fifth gear, going through the timing line in that gear, and he didn’t stop, as he immediately started his next run.
…
“OOOOOOOOOOOOH! A 1:50.679! EIGHT-TENTHS AHEAD OF THE SECOND-FASTEST LAP, AND HE IS ALREADY STARTING HIS SECOND PUSH LAP!” Justin shouted in excitement as he looked at the qualifying time that pushed Fatih to the top of the timing board with more than an eight-tenths gap between him and Ayrton Simmons.
“He gained more than six-tenths of that gap in the final sector, and between two corners, the consecutive Bomb Hole and Coram corners, is where those improvements came from. There is definitely something he is doing better than everyone else in those two corners.
He seems to be already improving on his second lap from the first one because he is up by a tenth of his first lap’s pace in that sector alone, and is already improving in the second sector. He is really a nightmare to have on the track,” Brad said as the feed once again returned to Fatih, showing him as he once again approached the chicane while overtaking a car going slowly on the straight.
