OK Number 27 - Foul Play
In spite of a heroic victory at Hungary, it was indisputable that twelve and a half points did not make the dent that twenty five could. While it did immense good for her momentum and her mentality, there was still a mountain to climb as Formula One entered the second half of the 2018 season, and to win she would have to deliver the campaign of her life. With eight races to the end, Kallen was at fifty three and a half points, compared to ninety nine for Suzaku, who was in immense form.
If it could be presumed that Suzaku would finish on the podium in every race going forwards, a fair presumption, then Kallen would almost certainly have to win every single race but one for the rest of the season to hurl in Suzaku. However, as would be seen, Kallen had the fortitude to mount an immense campaign, something that would ultimately be borne out by what transpired over the course of 2018.
This began at the British Grand Prix, where Kallen was the defending winner from 2017. Gino Weinberg had suffered a sprained wrist in his accident at Hungary and was unable to race, and so his seat at Camelot was taken for that race by Anya Alstreim, who was leading the 2018 Formula 2 championship with an affiliated team and was their test driver.
Kallen took yet another pole, cementing her status as an excellent qualifier, and with Luciano Bradley having a grid penalty for causing a collision with Andreas Darlton under safety car at Hungary, she did not have to worry about the ginger punting her from the rear into turn three, as transpired the previous year. Instead, she got an excellent start, matching the lights to the microsecond and retaining the lead into turn one, and began to push with all her might. Given the strategy, she needed to.
Behind her, Suzaku and Lelouch had qualified on the Soft compound tyres, while Kallen had set her fastest lap on the Super Soft. She would have to do at least one more stop, and so she had to attack to build up enough time on the faster tyres to compensate for the extra time spent in the pits.
What followed was a fascinating display, as the three front runners ran three completely different races, as the field watched to see how they converged. Kallen, out in front, was the fastest person on track, but she was going to be forced into a difficult three stop strategy, with three sets of Super Softs and a final Soft stint. Suzaku, starting on Softs, was able to do a middle stint on Super Softs and finish on the Softs again.
Meanwhile, Lelouch was another layer removed, moving from his Softs to Mediums as late as he could and trying to drag those tyres to the end, saving time by skipping out on two pit stops relative to Kallen. He would leapfrog ahead, only to be reeled in. The field was jumbled up throughout the race as Kallen made her way back up to the front with her fresh, softer rubber, chasing down Suzaku, who was chasing down Lelouch. By the dying laps, the three were within one camera shot, in descending order of speed. Kallen fought past Suzaku, whose Softs were older, and then breezed past the worn Mediums of Lelouch to seize the lead, before Suzaku took second place on the last lap.
Five weeks later, after the summer break, came the Belgian Grand Prix, and Kallen secured another commanding pole position, with Marrybel Glinda at her flank. Kururugi and a returning Weinberg completed the second row, but Lelouch didn't even make Q3, struck by technical complications that had plagued him free practice and qualifying. Starting from 11th, he stalled at the line, leading to an aborted start. He was able to continue racing, albeit from the spare car, which meant he would have to start from the pit lane and fight his way back through to the points. Meanwhile, Glinda was able to jump his teammate Kozuki off the line, however the Japanese driver was able to reclaim the lead from the Canuck with an undercut, pushing after a pitstop to speed past on the delta. Kururugi was close behind his teammate to take the final podium position, while Lelouch was able to recover to a brilliant fourth by pitting under a late safety car, caused by Tamaki crashing out of Raidillon.
Singapore was the next race on the calender, and it being the other race Kallen had won in 2017, and the site of her first ever pole position. With the twitchy, high sprung Type-2/F19-Y suiting the tight street circuit, Kallen was expected to do extremely well, and she followed through. On Saturday, she blitzed Q3 with the fastest lap ever recorded around the circuit, hurtling the car around the tightly walled street track with reckless abandon. The video of the lap was shared all across social media, demonstrating the impossible speed carried into the narrow corners, and how much work had to be put into the hyperactive wheel to manage the cars vicious tendencies, with all ergonomics and smoothness sacrificed at the altar of speed. Never more than inches away from the many walls, she judged the distances to perfection, and was eight tenths of a seconds ahead of Lelouch in P2. It was a great display of administering chaos, managing impossible inputs in the blink of an eye and adapting to changing grip and sensations.
The race was not quite as dominant, thank goodness; a faulty clutch on Kallen's car could be managed once the car was up to speed, but it meant the pull off the line in first gear was heavily compromised, and Kallen lost several places, putting Lelouch briefly in the lead, before a surprisingly belligerent Suzaku made a successful move around his outside to take it off him. However, Kallen was on a charge, and was back up to third by the time the forecasted rain arrived at the Marina Bay. Judging conditions well, Kallen got onto the Intermediate tyres before anyone else, and successfully got ahead of Suzaku and Lelouch in the final phases of the race. However, it was not over, as a backmarker held up Suzaku by over two seconds as the Japanese man tried to lap the slower car, allowing Lelouch to catch and pass his friend, returning to second in the dying gasp of the race.
As Formula One returned to the United States, it was expected that Suzaku would finally strike back at Kallen, with the longer Rosenberg having the ability to do well over the mechanically taxing Circuit of the Americas that required stability and finesse. This he did, putting an end to Kallen's streak of six consecutive poles, which was ten if you counted Monaco. Lining up alongside him was Gino, whose patience in Camelot was rewarded with a B spec car, which was hoped would return the team to the pace of seasons gone by. Kallen had to be satisfied with row two of the grid, beside Kewell, with Lelouch even further behind.
The race was an protracted battle between Suzaku and Gino for the win, as they swapped and switched places over the course of three pit stops. Both drivers were rewarded for their notoriously slick, conservative style of driving, while Kallen could not keep up as her jerky movements simply shedded momentum in the long curves of sectors one and three.
In the end, Gino took a momentous victory, the first of the season for Camelot, while Suzaku was content to finish second. As he stated on the podium, if he finished second in every race to the end, the championship would mathematically be his, and he felt no obligation to push the envelope of risk to take a win, that could result in him crashing and hence losing the points he would have earned from finishing second. To win, Kallen would have to win the three remaining races, unless some difficulty struck Suzaku.
At Austria, this appeared to be the case. Suzaku suffered from an engine failure in qualifying around the Red Bull Ring, and was forced to start from the pit lane. Kallen led a lights to flag victory, and struck home with a Grand Chelem, leading every lap and setting the fastest lap of the race, followed by Gino and Lelouch. Suzaku could only manage to finish in the lower echelons of the points, which changed the dynamics of the championship dramatically. With this, Suzaku's maths was all put to waste, and now, with two races to go, Kallen was at two hundred and a half points to Suzaku's two hundred and one, as close as damnit to a tie. Losing the eighteen points for a second place finish meant that instead of being in a position where he could concede seven in each race with four points left over, he now had a fight on his hands.
This meant that Kallen, having won five out of the six races since Canada could actually pull into the lead of the championship for the first time since Australia in the penultimate race at Abu Dhabi, and as she pulled in from the final qualifying run she felt that she had put herself in prime position to do so. She had set yet another Pole lap, and was delighted, waving her arm in celebration of another perfect lap, coasting back to the pits as she chuckled and fist pumped past the crowds.
She was still celebrating as she pulled into her garage, turning across the pit lane and settling the car into its parking spot, still rocking within the cockpit and cheering. However, as she clambered out, and pumped one final fist, she noticed the deflated state of the pit mechanics, who stood around the car with a visible concern.
"What's wrong?" Kallen asked, as she removed her helmet and stepped off the bow. She was not provided with an initial response as she approached the cordon around the car, before a series of other mechanics in white uniforms propped up the car and proceeded to prod around the rear of the car, without a word from the Rebellion mechanics. Confused, Kallen moved to Ohgi for answers, however she was stopped by another white-clothed mechanic, who spoke in quiet tones.
"Please follow me to the drivers briefing room."
Subdued, Kallen nodded and did so, being escorted through the back of the garage to the FIA buildings, where the stewards busied themselves and official business was conducted. The drivers briefing at the beginning of the weekend served as a point of communication between the stewards and drivers, however whatever this was, it was not the normal use of the room.
As she entered the room, she noted several people sat across the room; Lelouch was slouched in the back, looking uncharacteristically small, Suzaku was as confused as Kallen, sat up near the front of the room visibly demanding an explanation, while Charles Zi Britannia occupied the podium at the front proper, hogging up all the space he could.
Uncertain, Kallen sat, with an arm placed on the back of the chair behind her, ready to launch her up in outrage should the need arise. Still not knowing what was going on, she cautiously ventured a query, petitioning "What is going on here?"
Charles did not answer, simply standing at the podium in absorbing silence for minutes, before an attendant entered the room and handed him a sheet of paper. Upon receiving this, he shifted and cleared his throat, regaining the attention of the room as he prepared to speak.
"This afternoon, a tip reached the stewards from a driver who with remain anonymous that another named driver was running an illegal ECU, which had been tampered with to act as a primitive ABS in violation of the regulations of the FIA. On foot of this, all cars were examined to look for signs of tampering, and it was discovered that the car of the named driver, the number eleven Rebellion of Kallen Kozuki, was indeed running with altered software, which ought to have been in accordance with the specifications of the FIA as provided in the regulations. It was not, having been at some point modified. This altered spec was run during all three sessions of qualifying, and as such the named driver has been disqualified, and will start from pit lane for the race beginning tomorrow."
Kallen paused as she digested this, before rising and shouting "What the hell? When did this happen?"
Charles shrugged, and replied "We did the checks on foot of a tip from another driver, we do not know how long the software has deviated from the specification outlined. Given the evidence, we decided to act on the time period we know for certain it was in contravention of the rules."
"Are you accusing me of cheating?" she replied, now foaming at the mouth.
"It makes no difference. Your car was illegal. Intent is not of consequence."
Kallen paused, as she tried to work out what the hell was going on, before asking, with a hint of bile, "And was there anything found on the other Rebellion car?"
Charles shook his head, replying "There was no evidence of tampering found on the car number twenty seven of Lelouch Lamperouge."
Kallen turned to glare at Lelouch, as she mulled over the possibilities. He looked straight back at her, seeming almost bored as he met her hot inquisitive gaze coolly. Could he have done it? He hardly had the technical ability, but he had the motive. Unwilling to get into a shouting match in the middle of a room of half a dozen drivers, she grimaced and replied "I assume it will be restored to its original state?"
Charles nodded. "Rebellion has been instructed to amend the issue, and once it has been done you will be allowed to race."
Without another word, Kallen turned and left. She had to work out why the hell this had happened. This was not going to stand, one way or the other, and someone was going to pay for stealing pole from her.
The top slot would go to Gino, who was followed by Lelouch, Marrybel, Kewell and Suzaku. Kallen would be stone dead last and then some, starting from pit lane. Moreover, this was not Brazil; overtaking at the Yas Marina circuit was a serious challenge, almost as hard as Monaco, and her chance of points was slim. Kallen doubted this was an accident; someone wanted to kneecap her for this critical race. It could have been Suzaku, or more likely someone who worked for Rosenberg, as Kururugi was too circumspect to risk tampering with an opponent's car. Lelouch was such an obvious suspect that it was almost too obvious; he would know that he was the main suspect.
However, she had to check every avenue, and so she turned the initial phases of her fury on Ohgi, cornering him in the back of the garage and pressing him on how the code got into the ECU.
"I don't know!" he insisted. "I don't know! It's kept hooked to a laptop to monitor it, but I guess someone could have come and hit the keyboard a few times to install some code if they knew what they were doing, but I don't know who would do it, or even what that code would be. I don't know who would do it, we're all behind you!"
The rest of the night was spent in lurking, as Kallen interrogated half the garage, trying to play amateur detective. She received variants of Ohgi's answer as she prowled about the paddock, and was still in a foul mood as she sought out Lelouch to confront him directly.
He was nowhere to be found within the Rebellion garage, and indeed seemed to be keeping a low profile. It took a while for Kallen to spy him out, deep in conversation with Reuben Ashford at the other end of the pit lane. Growing suspicious, she walked down towards the Ashford RT pit stand, where the pair seemed to not notice her, such was the intensity of their discussion, until Kallen stood behind them and hissed "Good evening gentlemen."
Their huddle parted immediately, as they rotated out to face her, each with a different response. Lelouch had an initial glare, but relaxed it quickly, as befitted a meeting between teammates.
By contrast, Reuben, a shrinking violet at the best of times, withered completely under Kallen's oppressive glare, seeming to find it impossible to avoid what Lelouch brushed off and ignored with a practised ease. The landed Earl was clearly not a people person.
After reading the mood of the gathering, Kallen nodded and began "Good enough evening, mm?"
Lelouch sniffed, before replying curtly "Good enough. What did you need?"
He clearly, in spite of polite smile and voice ringing with a comradely helpfulness, was in no mood to talk to Kallen, both irked from being interrupted in his discussion with Reuben and uneasy in light of what she was clearly here to talk about.
"What the fuck happened to my car?"
Lelouch was visibly put off by Kallen's vitriol, seeming to fade into a wince before commenting "It would appear that you were running an illegal car, and order was restored. Charles was not ambiguous on this point. Not sure why you needed me to point that out."
"You cheating-"
"You're driving an illegal car, and you call me the cheat?"
Kallen lost quite a bit of momentum at this point, but recovered and argued "I'd have scored the pole position with or without any software. This wasn't cheating, it was sabotage. My car had the software, and yours didn't. What do you have to say to that?"
"Well, I say that my mechanics are diligent in ensuring my car meets the full specifications of the FIA, and hence I will be starting tomorrows race from the front row of the grid. We have no way of knowing what your pace in a legal car would have been, and so your car was sent to the back, and justice was served."
"A driver reported it, according to Charles. Either that driver would be so technically competent that they tell a car had electronic traction control simply from watching it drive, or they would be the one who installed it."
Lelouch paused, waiting to see if she was finished before observing "That's not a question, that's an accusation."
"Take it however you want, punk."
Lelouch's eyebrows raised, before he cleared his throat and said "Reuben, turn in. I'll get back to you later-"
"No, stay." Kallen insisted, shifting left to block the stairs. Lelouch's face now turned dark, and Reuben turned a hot shade of red. Lelouch clearly did not want the designer present for this discussion, and given the elder mans technical skill, dots quickly began to connect. Kallen's suspicion was validated, though not confirmed, by a new, harsher tone from Lelouch, as he hissed "Perhaps someone who has driven with you for a year can tell when you do and don't have electronic traction control, as they've been paying close attention to your driving and measuring themselves against it. Don't blame the person who reported the crime for your commission of it."
"I did nothing wrong. I didn't touch the ECU. Moreover, it doesn't matter whether a mechanic did it, a tech junkie someone hired, or even a team mate-"
"Subtlety is not your strong suit it seems." Lelouch shot back, his voice now growing angry. "I wouldn't know the first thing about computers. How would I even write the goddamn script?"
"Perhaps you asked a good friend and former employer who is skilled in technical matters to do it for you?" Kallen asked sarcastically, turning briefly to Reuben, who could not have looked more embarrassed if he tried. Lelouch, not appreciating his friend being dragged into it, grew even more hostile, replying "If you want to start a fight with me, that's our business, but unless you've got a whole shedload more evidence beyond your angry ramblings, I'd suggest you sod off back to the garage before you make a mistake you will regret in taking on Reuben. He may drop in a word with Charles, and he will drop the weight of the world on you, so back off."
However, Lelouch miscalculated, as Kallen's internal dictionary lacked any recognition of the term 'back off.' She stood upright, positively indignant at the injustice of what Lelouch was positing, and was moments from unleashing rage on Lelouch's smug certainty before a shout interrupted the scene, surprising all three of them as they turned to spot Gino, quite visibly worked up.
"What on earth is going on here?" he asked, arriving at the scene with surprising haste, presenting an assertive aggression that surprised Kallen. He very quickly took control of the scene, both the tallest and loudest person present.
"Kallen and I were discussing her penalty." Lelouch replied banally, somewhat neutered but not wholly swatted by the unexpected presence of someone outside of his mechanisms and machinations.
Gino turned his nose up slightly, and replied "Seemed to get rather heated."
Lelouch shrugged, and replied "Kallen is rather competitive. It's understandable to get frustrated when you get a penalty, but when you go accusing others of sabotage, it's understandable that things get rather personal."
"Well, speaking about Kallen like she's not here is hardly earning you any goodwill, Lamperouge. Second, given that your motives align fairly neatly with this whole mess, I wouldn't get so hot under the collar about a bit of scrutiny. You're seventeen points off Kallen, and I'd imagine the bonus for finishing second in the championship is mighty tasty for someone in your position."
"Easy for you to say Weinberg, when you've never had to worry about money, or taking care of your loved ones in your life." Lelouch shot back. As was ever annoying about Lelouch, he had a point, at least as far as Gino was concerned; born to English nobility, he had never had an issue funding his hobby into an ambition, through karts and the junior formulae. As such, he hardly had the standing to challenge that point, however Kallen very much did.
"Naoto and I ran things out of a one room flat for years, and you don't see me prancing around like a dishonest prick. Quit hiding behind your siblings and using them as a shield."
Lelouch now expressed a very dangerous face Kallen had not seen before, possessing a dark violence. His eyes struck an intensity as he leaned forwards, causing Kallen and Gino to respond with defensive stances, ready for whatever came next. However, after he bit his lip, he simply replied "Get the hell out of my face."
Kallen was ready to slap him, however Gino shook his head and cautioned "Not worth the effort."
She thought it over, before siding with Gino, backing off slowly as Lelouch shot daggers into the pair of them, with Reuben in the background, stood behind Lelouch with some hesitancy, clearly put off by the hostile atmosphere.
The Frenchman shook his head, and turned to the team owner before murmuring "Let's take this indoors."
Tense times for our leads. As the championship enters the endgame, the drama is approaching a boiling point, especially as we approach the Brazilian Grand Prix. Please leave a review to let me know what you make of the direction I'm going!
~Eth0