OK Number 43 - Late, But Fashionably So

Sure enough, Lelouch turned up to the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain two weeks later without hair. He ultimately didn't mind, having sewn up sixth and seventh, however skinhead Lelouch was undeniably a bad look, particularly given his long term face bruising, which completed the 'recently released from a young offenders institution' look.

The conditions on the race evening were similar to what had been seen on both Friday and Saturday, the air temperature at 25 degrees with clear skies throughout. Xingke had taken the Pole and led away into turn one. He was closely followed by Zhou Xianglin, Naoto, Weinberg, Nu, and Bradley. The quintet led away and were unaffected by the chaos that occurred behind, in turn one. After almost stalling, like Rolo had in Australia, Xianglin had dropped from second to ninth, and, trying to save her race, challenged up the inside of Suzaku's Schwarzenritter as they entered turn one. Zhou's left front tyre impacted with the right-hand sidepod of Suzaku's car which half-spun him into the Ashford-RT of Rai Lubie, who was also the driver who had replaced Lelouch when he left to go to Rebellion.

Once Zhou had emerged, having taken a severe hit, Kururugi impacted on the front left of Tamaki causing irreparable damage to the left front suspension of the Japanese car. At the end of the lap, Zhou, Kururugi, Tamaki and Rai all pitted to repair damage caused in the first corner incident with Zhou, Kururugi and Tamaki having to retire, with damage beyond repair. Rai only needed a replacement front wing, and rejoined in last.

On lap ten, Gino attempted a move on Naoto into turn one, beginning a prolonged fight for second as Xingke streaked away. The pair kept fighting until they both pitted on lap eleven, with both drivers changing from the soft tyres onto the harder rubber. This allowed for a scrap for second to expand to include Villetta Nu, as the two male drivers had been losing time due to their prolonged fights, and allowed Nu to catch them. It would only last one lap however, as Villetta span out at turn four. Out front, Xingke continued to lead by five seconds.

This was a lead Xingke would extend, and once Gino had finally put Naoto behind him for good, the remainder of the Grand Prix amounted to playing out the string. Rolo would finish fifth, though Suzaku was not on hand to make it a second successive double points finish. Luciano Bradley retired with eight laps to go, ominously suffering a dramatic tyre blowout at turn ten like Zhou and Tohdoh had in Australia.

However, once the weekend was over, the teams stay in the Middle East was not long for this world, as the circus shuffled over to South-East Asia for the Malaysian Grand Prix. At this point, the top three, Xingke, Gino, and Naoto, had finished both races in the same positions and order, with fifty, thirty-six and thirty points respectively. Rolo was on eighteen, and Suzaku was on six points, forty four points adrift of the leader, which, while it was beyond what Lelouch could expect, no doubt caused Suzaku deep seated frustration.

However, something else was causing Lelouch deep seated frustration, and it was currently chugging a carton of chilled apple juice just across the circuit from a changing room, unaware of the scorn currently being directed at her by a cripple sitting in a distant pitwall.

"D'you reckon it's hotter here than in Bahrain or what Gino?"

Kallen sighed, trying desperately to vent heat stored in the airs in her lungs as she tried to squeeze into her overalls in the five foot square cubicle, requiring her to top up her fluids every twelve seconds and keep abreast of her temperature, rising by about six degrees celsius per second.

Gino was in the next cubicle, and very much out of sight, but she could almost see his shrug as he replied "Not sure. I think it's more all the moisture in the air, it's danker than a jungle. I'm sweating spinal fluid."

Kallen could certainly relate to that. 30 degrees celsius was not quite the desert heat, but the desert was dry, and felt more like an arid scorching than a drenching boil, leading to the sense of this South Pacific archipelago being far warmer, far beyond even the south end of cicada-ridden Honshu in the height of August summer.

Just as Kallen squeezed the outer layer of nomex around her waist and hoisted them with her shoulders up to her neck, the tannoy blared into life.

"First session of qualifying begins in fifteen minutes, ticket holders please return to your stands."

This was certainly an incentive to hurry along, as getting knocked out of the first session would not only be quite embarrassing, but moreover condemn them to the back of the grid. Kallen, however, again took a breath, and looked up towards the cubicles mirror. Her pink Camelot overalls reached up to her neck, strapped across the width of her collar. In white fabric, it read out her driver information.

'Driver: Kozuki Kallen / Blood Type: B / Date of Birth: March 29th, 2000.'

She was racing again. She would be driving a race car again, in a competitive racing environment, with other drivers, trying to go faster than the people around her. She wasn't banned anymore. She looked at her reflect, and let out a relieved smile, almost about to let out a few tears in delight.

She was back.

She held air in her chest, before shakily letting it out, in a stuttered exhalation. She hadn't felt this happy since her win in Hungary. Finally feeling ready, she closed her eyes, and stepped out of the cubicle.

Gino was waiting for her, and when he saw her, laughed.

"Holy heck, were you doing cocaine in there? I've never seen you smiling like that."

Kallen chuckled, before replying "Nah, just happy to be doing this again. Let's go."

Gino nodded, before they moved out of the changing area together. These were down at the end of the final sector. The F2 race had just ended, which left the track clear to cross until Qualifying started. Moving between the grandstands, they stepped out into the last corner, only pausing for a few moments to sign autographs, before crossing over to the pit wall, running up to the gap in the catch fencing before hopping over the corrugated steel barrier. They then ran over to the Camelot garage, where engineers were almost universally pointing towards their wrists to try and hurry them along. Kallen leapt into the car, grabbing her gloves as the engineer explained the situation.

"You shouldn't have any trouble getting through to the next session. You'll do this session on Hards, we're that fast, and do the second on Mediums and start on those. That will mean we have two extra sets of softs to compete for Pole and use in the race."

Kallen nodded, saying "Sounds good.", before pressing the button on her wheel signalling readiness, as the tyres were strapped on and she was waved clear. Kallen looked briefly left, before clutching out and rolling up towards the pit lane exit to begin her out lap. She would need to drive a whole lap, come back to the start line, do a full lap from finish line to finish line, and then do another lap to return to the pit lane. Including the leaving and returning to the pit lane, one hot timed lap would require three laps of driving. The first of these laps would be required to get familiar with the conditions and warm the tyres, before she went for the hell-for-leather timed lap.

Practice had been promising. While she had bonked the nose in the first session of practice, she was finding the limits of performance very quickly, aided by one secret weapon.

Kallen loved Sepang. Like Shanghai, or Suzuka, the first turn would decrease in radius, before switching direction. A sweeper under acceleration, a short radius right hander which was tough to get right, a set of not-quite-flat out long curves, testing the tyres and the downforce. An off camber hairpin led into a blind crest and then two corners in rapid succession requiring the driver to brake while turning, which was an exercise in staving off a brake lock-up. Then, immediately after a challenging acceleration zone, came a blast down a long straight, into a long radius hairpin, and then back to the pit straight. It flowed, had camber and radius changes in its corners, and it was very conducive to side by side racing, and right now, Kallen was wrapping up her timed lap on hards, braking deep into the hairpin, before swapping back and catching it quite late into the turn, allowing her to run up against the inner edge of the track, and get the shortest run to the line.

As soon as she crossed the line, Kallen lifted off the throttle. This three lap stint was performed on minimal fuel, and she would have to coast to make it back to the pits. However, it appeared as if she was in the clear, as her engineer spoke over the radio.

"Great lap, that's exactly the time we were looking for. Get back to the pits."

She had grown so used to getting to Q3 that getting a good enough time in Q1 barely registered, only doing so because it was an affirmation that she hadn't lost her touch, particularly as she returned to the pits and saw the time.

"It's a fifth, but you're the only one on hards. You're on the pace."

Kallen nodded, however Q2 would prove more difficult. The time in this session would be set on the medium tyre, which put her at slightly less of a pace disadvantage, though her lap would still be handicapped, not only by the harder rubber, but by something less fundamental; these would be the tyres she started on if she made it to Q3.

If the car was fast enough to make it to Q3 without difficulty, it was always better to start on more durable tyres to try and push out the first pit stop to as late as possible and not be caught up in traffic. However, this relied, as well as on the hardness of the tyres, on the lap they were used on not having extracted too much life out of them.

Which would take away quite a bit of what made Kallen fast.

As well as using throttle oversteer to spin up the rear end and shift it laterally round the corner and trail braking, inducing a slide under braking caused the car face more towards the direction of the road after the corner, but as well as this the lateral resistance of the tyres, moving along the road with an element of the vector of force perpendicular to the direction of travel. Given that the wheels could not physically rotate in this direction, the degree to wheel the vehicle slowed was increased exponentially. The upshot of all of this was that Kallen could brake much later, which when combined with her two other unique approaches made what was something of an unwieldly, oversized car surprisingly nimble.

Of course, there were reasons, very good ones, why this was out of step with the traditional approach. Of course, it led to incredible rates of tyre wear, generating flat spots on the tyre as if it had just gone through twelve lock ups. As well as this, these approaches were incredibly difficult to manage, requiring millimetric adjustments of the brakes, throttle and steering wheel at a microseconds notice, a set of inputs which varied lap by lap and was overly complex to pull off for most. However, these would not be available to her if her goal was to preserve her tyres, which took away most of her arsenal.

But not all of it.

Over pre-season testing, she had noticed a peculiarity with the current spec of engines, which she realised she could exploit. She had driven the Rebellion and the Camelot, and realised that this was a characteristic of the turbocharged engines as opposed to the particular model Rebellion used; the throttle would be depressed, and while power would be delivered, there would be a moment in which the engine worked itself up and delivered full power, leading to two tenths of a second between applying full throttle to rev the engine and receiving maximum power. This normally served most drivers, as this turbo lag acted as a rudimentary traction control, preventing too much torque being put through the tyres at any given time with a gradual increasing of engine power to the wheels.

However, Kallen didn't want the engine to act as an artificial traction control. She felt she could modulate the power less extremely without breaking traction.

Her solution to the problem of allowing peak engine power to reach the wheels immediately upon acceleration was somewhat roundabout, but as she rounded the final corner to begin her Q2 lap, it definitely worked.

The unintuitive trick, its unnatural feeling being why Kallen suspected few others were using this approach, was to begin applying the throttle before she had lifted off the brake pedal. This revved the engine up and tried to apply force to the rear axle, countered by the brake, which acted as a metering agent. This would be done ideally while mid corner, so when she had gotten round she could get off the brake and the power would reach the wheels immediately, as opposed to there being a delay.

She was using the brake pedal as a throttle pedal. No wonder no one else had thought of it.

Once again, this method of extracting performance from the car by hook or by crook came at a cost. She couldn't release the brake instantly, going from full application to off without moderation, otherwise the rears would over-rotate and leave her at best with worn tyres and at worst vulnerable to spinning into a wall. The brakes would have to be released progressively, as opposed to an on-off switch, with the advantage arising more in how the moderation would be faster than allowing the engine to reach peak revs naturally. As well as this need for precision, there was also the delicate issue of the trick leading to overheating brakes, as they had to passively resist acceleration as well as their designed task of retardation. During testing in Spain, as well as untold numbers of tyres, Kallen went through at least sixty brake pads, melting them in their housings.

Given that, if everything went right, this would not wear down the tyres, unlike many of her other tricks, she could at least continue this one, as she braked into the first turn. She only lifted off the throttle in the initial deceleration, and once she crested the apex, she returned her foot to the throttle, however did not release the break until she had made it through the second apex and was approaching the outside kerb.

Sure enough, the car, already wound up and with its engine firmly in the power band of the rev range, sprang away from the spot, just within the torque limit of wheelspin due to intense focus. It was like getting a kick start against a wall in a swimming race, and propelled her down the straight, and served her well over the course of the lap, and as she approached the last corner, she sat as the red line until she made it round the corner, before dropping the brake pedal and rocketing towards the finish line.

Kallen let out a sigh, releasing the throttle too let the brakes and engine cool to a few degrees below the surface of the sun.

The session was close to ending as she crossed the line, as they had released her late so that she could take advantage of increased grip conditions from laid down rubber. She hadn't even made it back to the pits before the radio sparked into life, telling her her fate.

"You've made Q3 mate, pee six, pee six. The top ten go through, and you're in!"

Kallen, who had felt more at risk given both her being restrained from using her entire arsenal and on the slower tyre, was elated, and pumped the air vigorously, cheering into her helmet. She banged her fisted gloves against her helmet all the way back to the pit lane, where she high fived her engineer, before getting back to work.

Through to Q3, besides herself, were Xingke and Xianglin, Naoto and Tohdoh, Gino, Suzaku and Rolo, and Viletta and Luciano, however she was the only one who had tried the contra strategy.

As ever, she could guess at why she was the odd one out. Going for the harder tyres risked not being able to get into Q3, and it would put her out of step with what every other driver was doing, and if the harder tyre was not a good race tyre, she would be at a unique disadvantage as opposed to the rest of the field.

However, Kallen was not afraid of this, which was, ironically, in large part thanks to Lelouch.

He likely hadn't intended during his tract to her in her trailer after the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix for it to have stuck with her so long, but it very much had. She wanted to finish first. She would not be beaten by this old Chinese sports car enthusiast with his flat cap and tweed jacket, and she would finish first by hook or by crook.

If she wasn't first, she may as well be last. Second, third, fifth, tenth, or last; she would not settle for any of these if first was on the table.

Furthermore, if she ran an identical strategy to the Geely of Xingke, she would have zero chance of beating him. She would have no differentiation on the tyres and tactics, and her car, no matter who was driving it, was unambiguously slower than Xingke's. However, if she ran a different strategy, while the chance of her being slower than she would have been on a similar strategy was non-zero, the chance of her being faster was also non-zero.

If she wanted to beat Xingke in a slower car, using an alternate strategy was as natural as B following A. She would start on a harder tyre and try to pit later, overtaking in the pits while Xingke was caught in traffic, before defending like her life depended on it. Track position would be key.

Sardonically thanking Lelouch for the inspiration, she waited for the pit lane for the green light to signal the beginning of the third and final session. Without the need to conserve or preserve tyres, she could strap on softs and go all out for one timed attack of the circuit, no holds barred, seeking out the Pole at any costs.

"You're clear, good to go. This will be your one lap, but you've never had an issue on that front. Do us proud."

The call came through from her engineer, and she needed no further encouragement. She dropped the clutch, spinning up the wheels off the MDF floors and drifting out of her garage, hands busy gathering up the slide with a healthy dab of opposite lock, keeping it collected as she slid to the pit lane.

As she prepared for the lap, building up the heat in the tyres and brakes, working the engine and keeping the engine in the optimum rev range, she took another breath. As the car weaved across the track to laterally stretch the thread and canvas and work out the pads, as the car rocked from side to side and pressed immense g forces though her body, pushing her back into her chair, pulling her up against her seatbelts and applying massive forces to her head and neck, she suddenly felt great calm. Amidst the maelstrom of forces, physical pressures, intricate procedures, and incredible noise, Kallen closed her eyes, and smiled.

Yes, this was it, as good as it got. She would not prefer to be anywhere else.

Car over far, far to the left, almost over the kerb and into the grass, before she turned and braked. Feeling the rear slip away, she kept the steering lock in until it broke away entirely, beginning the primary rotation of the car, as well as using the lateral load on the tyres as a retarding agent.

Skating around the apex, and while still on the brakes just a bit, Kallen picked up the throttle. Like the previous lap, turn two was a sharp kink in the opposite direction to the hairpin she had just rounded, however unlike the previous lap, she leapt off the brake in one motion as opposed to gradually.

Where drivers might experience understeer by applying the throttle this early, with the increase of torque not being severe enough to break traction, Kallen's dragging of the brake meant that maximum torque was summoned as soon as she desired, which far from inducing understeer, the rear end suddenly kicking with the sudden application fo torque actually inducing oversteer, with the car pivoting nearly one hundred and eighty degrees almost on the spot.

This way, she had rotated the car from facing to the south east to the north almost on the spot by sliding the rear as opposed to allowing the steering rack to drag the front round to the desired direction, which was slower, especially given the size of the car and the limited steering angle, which rendered low speed handling quite the exercise in patience.

That was, if the driver went about it the traditional way, and was unwilling to induce severe skids and brief losses in control, trusting the car and its behaviours not spinning out into the barrier.

However, Kallen felt at one with the car, and arrested the spin just as soon as she reached the right direction, flickering her throttle input to moderate the wheelspin as she leapt up towards turn four, with turn three able to be taken flat.

Brake late into turn four, brief lift of the brakes before applying them again on approach to the apex, applying the throttle just before the apex, and taking off the brake as soon as she reached it. The car was almost unmanageable, twitching this way and that, requiring massive swings and management of the wheel to keep the car in the right direction. She had sacrificed all stability and ease of driving at the alter of speed. She could definitely confirm that the car was unstable, and required constant attention to keep in vaguely the right direction.

However, did this translate to speed? As she scrambled round the last corner, feeling the car shimmy as it was pushed beyond its designed capabilities, as she fought understeer, then oversteer, then understeer, then oversteer, then understeer, and GO!

Kallen then lifted off the brake as she finally reached the end of the last corner, and held her breath as a little under a thousand horsepower propelled her towards the line. Feeling her head get buffeted, she could only watch and pray as the line approached, unable to do anything more than pin the throttle.

And like that, it was all over, she had crossed the line. She had committed everything, put her car into the hands of fate fifteen times, and each time she had managed to come up with the exact right inputs. It was everything she could do and more. It was everything the car could do, and more.

She laughed in the cockpit, and shouting into her helmet, roared "Where am I? C'mon, how's that, how's that, HOW'S THAAT? C'mon, where am I on the grid? Did I get Pole? Did I get Pole?"

She's back! Did she get pole? And how are we feeling about the story so far? Please, let me know in the reviews.

~G1ll3s