OK Number Seven: High Stakes
"Five red lights, to the Monaco Grand Prix… and… away we go! Kururugi gets a good start, but so does Tohdoh. Suzaku looks to the outside, but Tohdoh holds the corner! Tohdoh holds his lead out of the first corner. However, Kallen is more successful, as she dives up the inside of Lelouch and they almost touch! Inches away from tragedy for the two drivers, but they both come away clean. I can't imagine either driver wanted a repeat of Japan. Kallen is through into third!"
"Not at all Diethard. Looking down the grid actually, not much action, apart from Tamaki pulling off a beautiful dive bomb and getting up into fifteenth place, but I can't see him getting much higher now."
Diethard nodded at Jeremiah's note, watching as Tamaki, in spite of visibly locking up both front wheels, was nonetheless able to place his car on the apex and barge his way up the grid. He had to give the man, he certainly had bravery, however Diethard doubted that that would be sufficient to succeed in the long term.
In the meantime, Kyoshiro Tohdoh was just entering the Loews hairpin with a small but noteworthy gap to Suzaku behind, braking gingerly, safe in the knowledge that it was quite difficult to overtake here, or indeed anywhere. To emphasise this, he added "That was unquestionably a great start by Tohdoh. Didn't get it right in Japan, but he is now in the lead as the pack moves through Portier."
"This is the corner Suzaku was complaining about having troubles with on Friday, but he seems to be keeping pace, at least relative to the rest of the track, however Tohdoh should have the legs on him down towards the swimming pool. One hundred and eighty miles per hour as they approach the chicane, can Suzaku have a look at passing?"
"No, too far back already." Diethard predicted, and was proven correct, as Suzaku instead chose to file in behind Tohdoh and follow the optimal line. He was followed by Kallen Kōzuki, who was about three tenths behind, and then by Lelouch, who was another seven tenths.
"Nonetheless, all seem to be through the chicane safely." Jeremiah confirmed as the drivers whizzed by the camera positioned on the exit of Tabac, in a linear procession. The camera then cycled to an onboard view of Kururugi, which certainly made for interesting viewing. His engines were a ways away from the highest of revs, and seemed to be driving extremely conservative.
"Look at how slow he's going…" Diethard commented, surprised by the near idling engine. "This is going to an immensely frustrating afternoon for Suzaku if he can't get past Tohdoh soon."
"Bear in mind now Diethard, that it's not as if Tohdoh's a slouch, he's won this race twice before. He thinks, and he's not wrong, that this is Monaco, it's incredibly easy to crash, and so he's not going to push the limits. Moreover, if there's a safety car, and there has been at least one every race for decades, then all his gains will be scrapped. In his mind, he thinks he might as well save the tyres for later. He's the one holding everyone behind though, so-"
Jeremiah was interrupted by the radio feed, broadcasted from Suzaku's in-car microphone and sent up live to the commentary box. It began with Chief Engineer Lloyd Asplund speaking as Suzaku tackled a sudden snap of oversteer through Rascasse.
"Dear Suzaku, of course you're doing a smashing job out there, but I didn't build you that masterpiece for you to drive it like an elderly woman!"
Suzaku, who was visibly wrestling with his wheel through Anthony Noghes in the wake of Tohdoh's dirty air, took a moment before replying once he swung onto the short pit straight with "If I go closer, the dry air destroys my tyres! I can't close up to overtake, we're going to have to get him on strategy!"
"For our viewers at home, while following a car can allow you to slipstream through the hole in the air the car ahead creates for more speed, it means your downforce is greatly reduced, slowing you down in corners. This is called dirty air, and here at Monaco it makes chasing a challenging experience."
The camera stayed with Suzaku for some time, watching as he settled into a rhythm a second behind Tohdoh, shifting into his trademark smooth style and settling his early sliding as heat was conducted into the tyres and the grip increased.
"Excuse me Jeremiah, but Tamaki didn't go past the camera there, Tamaki wasn't there in that camera shot, he's gone off somewhere. Something's gone wrong- oh, and the safety car has been called out! A safety car, on lap six of seventy!"
"And there's the remains of Tamaki's car there, on the exit of the Tunnel. What a strange place to have a crash, it does appear his car is facing backwards. Most odd, I'm sure the producers will show us a replay in due time."
"Indeed Jeremiah, however this is a critical moment. The top ten runners are running on the tyres they qualified on, which are soft and old, and they'll want to get off of them as soon as possible. Of course, a safety car means they'll lose less time in the pits, but can they take these hard tyres to the end of the race without running them down? With sixty four laps to go, that'd be a stretch, but definitely doable-"
"Hold on, team radio, it's Kōzuki."
Indeed it was, and as Diethard piped down, he listened intently to Kallen's brief instructions.
"Box now, primes to finish, primes to finish, will require management in latter half of the race."
The radio cut out, and Jeremiah nodded. "That confirms it. Tohdoh just entered turn one and did not pit, which means their putting their drivers on alternate strategies. They don't know what's faster, a shorter stop or a later stop."
"Should prove interesting." Diethard agreed, as he watched the stop on his screen. Efficient, yet understated, the car stopped, was swarmed by men in purple overalls, and drove away, about as quick as it took to say that sentence. The camera switched to an onboard shot as she dragged the cold, hard prime tyres out onto the first corner and dragged it round, pulling out into tenth place, just ahead of Rivalz Cardemonde, who had at some point lost ninth position to Li Xingke. However, with the safety car out and yellow flags in place, overtaking was illegal and speeds were heavily dropped as marshalls moved to clear up Tamaki's mess.
As if on cue, the camera moved again to a replay, and Diethard heard Jeremiah mutter "Finally…" just under his breath. Taking over, Diethard explained what he saw.
"So it appears Tamaki was attempting a move into the Tunnel out of Portier… he shifts his car to the outside line, pulling up towards Zhou Xianglin's Geely. Unorthodox place to attempt a pass but… no, no, he loses the back end as the long bend tightens, and hits the outside barrier."
"Yeah, that was only going to end one way." Diethard nodded. "The outside of the track isn't a good line, and is rarely used, as it has much less traction as the Tunnel curves in towards the straight. He just lost control of the car, the rear tyre skidded out of line, touched the wall, and that was all she wrote. It was an admirable Leeroy Jenkins move, but it ended in the old Leeroy Jenkins tradition."
Indeed, it seemed as if the high speed slide, rear wheels only in the initial phases of slithering out of Tamaki's control, could have been saved if there had been no barrier for him to knock against, and pivot in the opposite direction, rebounding against the inside barrier and spinning around, rolling out of the tunnel into the light with wrecked sidepods and carbon fibre shards everywhere, though protected by his carbon tub. The camera held on him stepping out of the car, visibly livid with how things had gone, which greatly amused Diethard.
"Lelouch is down the grid, Lelouch is now in eleventh by my readout, which means he's just after pitting onto Primes. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out as the pack bunches up behind the safety car, driven today by Marianne Zi Britannia."
Indeed it was, with the television feed cutting to an onboard shot of Marianne sawing back and forth at the chunky steering wheel of the safety car, driving ahead of the racing cars and keeping them to a designated pace, to ensure the marshalls could clear Tamaki's car. While their pace was slow for a Grand Prix car, Marianne's modified coupe was near full tilt, clearly demonstrated in how aggressively she was grappling with her controls. Not that she wasn't up to the task; Marianne had won three World Championships during the 1990's with Reuben Ashford, and had always stayed closely connected with the motorsports community, especially after marrying Charles.
She led the pack for six laps, before the call came through that it was safe to return to race speeds, which led to great vim within the commentary box.
"This is a real chance for Suzaku, if he's close enough behind on the restart he could pip Tohdoh into the first corner like he wasn't able to initially. Also, watch Kallen and Lelouch. They are on fresh rubber and down the pack, they could be making moves in the near future."
"They'll definitely need to Jeremiah, they need to be within twenty seconds of the lead cars for this strategy to work. We shall see, as the safety car is returning to the pit lane, and… the marshall has waved the green flag, and we're racing again! Tohdoh get a lightning start, and Suzaku is blown away! No chance into the first corner, and the procession continues."
Diethard was a little deflated initially, before he heard his colleague make a very strange noise, causing him to look again at the screen to catch a large amount of smoke at the corner of the screen. Utterly unsure of what this meant, Diethard simply reacted with a surprised "Oh my lord, what's happened here?"
His question remained unanswered until they were presented with a view of the incident. Diethard watched as Li Xingke on his older tyres, cold for having spent a few laps at a reduced pace behind the safety car, accelerating before turn one under immense pressure from Kallen and Rivalz, before suddenly his front wheels froze and suddenly began to skate across the tarmac. They stopped rotating, and began to draw up smoke from the friction of having too great a force applied in one jolt, as he experienced a horrific lock up. It forced him to skid his car down the run off area, and while he recovered the car back onto the track, his antics with braking lost him three positions, to Kallen, Rivalz and Lelouch respectively.
"This is very good for them." Jeremiah commented. "They need to be making up ground on track, because if they can gain time on this fresh rubber, there's a very real possibility of them leapfrogging the leaders when they have to pit themselves. That relies on them getting a move on while they have a pace advantage."
It certainly seemed as if they were getting that message, as Kōzuki at least was driving like a woman possessed. Sweeping through Mirebeau, she took a wide yet fast line through Loews and slingshotted the car around Portier, positively bombing her way through the tunnel as close to the inside wall as she dared. Braking quickly into the Nouvelle Chicane, she used all her grip, and all the width of the track to hold maximum speed, zipping through Tabac and darting about the Swimming Pool as if the car weighed but ounces, within inches of the barrier on exit for using the entire width of the track, and having the confidence to do so. It was little wonder when-
"Fastest! That's the fastest lap of the race so far from Kallen Kōzuki, a one minute sixteen point six! She is absolutely on it!"
"Quite incredible, she's already catching up to Villetta Nu." Diethard remarked. "Look how flat she is up Beau Rivage and Massanet, she is absolutely flying the car up there, supreme grip. There isn't even a hint of a lift, that's confidence."
However, this pace and this strategy would all be for naught if Nu proved to be a cork in the bottle. It only took two laps for Kallen to get up behind Nu's rear wing, and just as Suzaku had found with Tohdoh, the experience was less than ideal, with the car ahead to slow to drive properly behind, yet too big to pass.
"This could be a long afternoon indeed if she can't find a way through the Lancer. You can hear her lift off the throttle into Mirebeau painfully early, and follow… oh my, she's going for a move!"
It was an unlikely spot, however this was part of the reason Nu hadn't thought to defend; into the Loews hairpin, the tightest corner in modern motorsports, Kallen broke her car onto the kerb, literally dropping it on the raised apex and physically blocking off the corner, before pivoting round on full lock, barely dragging the front end of the car clear of the outside barrier.
"She's made it! The Rebellion-Sakura is through! Incredibly brave move, and she somehow has the traction on the run down towards Portier! Incredible stuff!"
Jeremiah's commentary was accurate, and, as it proved later, prescient, as she began to build a gap to Nu, and was now catching Bradley at a rate of knots.
"She is gaining just under a second per lap on Bradley, and is incrementally drawing towards the leading pack. Kallen Kōzuki is on a positive charge ladies and gents." Diethard announced, as she crossed the finish line to complete another fastest lap of the race. She was now only a second behind Bradley, and was in hot pursuit as they flew up the Casino Section. However, wisened to his colleagues error, he covered off the inside line into the hairpin, and held position as they moved through the Tunnel. Bradley remained ahead under braking, however he lost a lot of speed on exit, and was compromised through Tabac and the Swimming Pool.
At Rascasse, Kallen struck, faking to the outside before switching inwards, pulling off a dummy that allowed her to slide her car through the eye of the needle and pass ahead of Bradley, who thought that no one could fit a car through the gap he'd left, only to be proven wrong and overtaken before the front straight. Predictably, Jeremiah was rather excited about all this.
"That was absolutely incredible! Not but a flinch, and she throws it in there like she's practiced it! You can see just how comfortable she is with the car, one hundred percent dialled in. Overtaking at Monaco, now that's something. It's not as if it's experience talking either, she's only nineteen years old in her second race. I think we might be watching the start of something very special here today."
In spite of his colleagues predisposition to hyperbole, Diethard found himself agreeing as he watch her slither up the track. Yes, he thought to himself, slither was the best word. She was never still on track, always darting about the width of the circuit. Even on straights, she shook the car into squirming dances as if testing the grip in real time, and was able to fly into corners with reckless abandon, and yet somehow find the sporadic patches of tarmac that allowed her to control the car and swing around corners, looking at once on the edge of disaster and in complete control. Her hands aggressively hammered about the wheel like a seesaw, causing the car to scamper about from pocket of grip to patch of traction, completely unstable yet uncannily quick.
So quick, in fact, that she was causing a stir up the grid. On lap twenty two of seventy, Suzaku's radio flared into life.
"Pit for Primes Suzaku, Pit for Primes, we want to undercut Tohdoh and cut off Kallen, who is catching on fresh-ish Primes, you'll be taking those tyres to the end of the race."
The late announcement was made as Suzaku followed Tohdoh into Rascasse, the second to last corner, and so he was able to quickly move left into the pit lane, while the Rebellion pit crew were unable to call Tohdoh in before he had already passed by the pit lane entry.
"...and that..." Jeremiah emphasised "...was how you work strategy. Suzaku is going to get a strong undercut, unless Tohdoh does the lap of his life, because when Suzaku comes out, there'll be an interval where he is driving on fresher tyres before Tohdoh can pit, meaning he gains net time while Tohodoh is in his pit box."
Suzaku rolled his car in at the legal limit, slid it into the pit box and was almost immediately serviced, his new tyres replacing old within the blink of an eye, away before any comment could be made on the matter.
"Alright Suzaku, now bring my dear thing home in one piece!" Lloyd encouraged over the radio as Suzaku fiddled with the dials littering his steering wheel. As soon as he reached the exit line, the camera caught him flicking a switch up out of his limiter, and unleashing over six hundred Newton-Meters of torque into the fresh rear tyres, however the rubber dug in, and rocketed him towards the first corner. However, there was an important question.
"Where's he coming out? Will he stay ahead of Kallen and her undercut? I can just see him now from where I'm sitting… oh she's on the straight and closing… ohh, but he keeps the corner, and stays ahead!"
As Diethard said, Suzaku had indeed managed to cover off Kallen's pace on the new tyres, and with fresh rubber himself, was uniquely able to hold her off. The camera shifted to his cockpit view, allowing viewers to see how he drive, which served as an interesting comparison to Kallens doctrine of aggressive movement.
Suzaku was nothing like this. His style was incredibly soft and practiced, with incredibly supple inputs that seemed to live by the creed that smoothness brought speed. His hands moved slowly about the steering wheel, with only a single, fluid motion on turn in, and then a gentle releasing to straighten the car back up. Unlike Kallen, who adjusted and moved the wheel many times per corner, Suzaku never made minor movements of his wheel, preferring the large sweeps that maintained speed. It was sublime and unflappable, and allowed Suzaku to keep pace with his pursuer, where those before had not.
And, without obstruction, Suzaku began the work of catching Tohdoh as the double World Champion. What had been a twenty two second gap when Suzaku left the pits was whittled down, as he set the fastest first sector, fastest second sector, and-
"Fastest lap of the race from Suzaku Kururugi!" Jeremiah announced, before continuing "Stunning lap, and where does it put him relative to Tohdoh? Suzaku's passing the pit exit now, I don't see… oh there he is, and he comes out behind Kallen! Oh my lord, that was dramatic! Suzaku leads, followed by Kallen, though on tyres that are roughly eight laps older, and then Tohdoh, all within two seconds of one another. Lelouch is back a few seconds as well. The battle is joined!"
Indeed it is! Kallen has come along leaps and bounds, and now is right up there with the leaders. I hope you enjoyed this Chapter, and it'd mean the world to me if you could review! See you soon!
~Eth0