The yellow flag waved behind the field as the five red lights turned green, signaling the start of the formation lap.
Alex Sun gently rolled onto the throttle, guiding the car smoothly out of its grid slot. Throughout the lap, he made small, controlled movements with the steering wheel and lightly brushed the brakes, quickly bringing the soft tyres up to their operating window.
The TR radio crackled to life. Mark's calm voice came through.
"Tyre temperatures normal. Engine parameters stable. Stick to the planned rhythm."
The formation lap ended, and the cars lined up in their grid boxes once more. Above the track, the starting light gantry activated. Five red lights illuminated one by one, growing brighter under the pit lane lights, each glow adding another layer of pressure to the air.
Alex Sun held his breath, every muscle in his body coiled tight. Both hands pressed firmly on the clutch paddles behind the steering wheel. His right foot eased onto the throttle, holding the engine precisely at 6000 RPM. With a light flick of his fingers, he selected first gear. Everything was ready.
His eyes never left the red lights above the grid. His heart seemed to hang suspended, all stray thoughts stripped away. Man and machine merged into one as he focused solely on the lights, waiting for the signal that would define the opening moments of the race.
In the blink of an eye, all five red lights went out at once. The F2 Sprint Race was underway!
Alex Sun released the clutch paddles instantly. The red soft tyres skated briefly on the edge of adhesion before biting hard, unleashing a surge of traction that catapulted the car off the line and down the track.
Ahead to the right, Oscar Piastri's launch faltered. The engine note rose and fell unevenly, his acceleration sluggish, opening a small gap to the car in front.
An opening.
Alex Sun's eyes sharpened. Without hesitation, he turned left decisively, the car slicing into the space.
He locked onto Piastri's rear wing, feathering the throttle. Using the soft tyres' stable initial grip, he completed the move at a razor-thin angle.
As they drew level, the sidepods nearly brushed. Turbulent air tugged at the car, but Alex Sun held the wheel steady and stayed flat. Once past Piastri, he straightened the car immediately and charged toward Turn 1.
At the tight, low-speed corner, he resisted the temptation to dive inside. Instead, he held the outside line to preserve momentum and maintain a clean trajectory. When the nose lined up perfectly with the apex, he snapped back to the inside.
This was the golden defensive line at the Circuit de Monaco. Control the inside, and you shut the door completely. From spotting the chance, to making the pass, to locking down the line, the entire sequence took less than three seconds.
"Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!" the commentator exclaimed. "Alex Sun capitalized on Piastri's poor launch! That cut to the left was clean and decisive—no wasted movement at all! To get that kind of punch off the line on soft tyres, he's completely mastered their initial grip!
From ninth to eighth at the start—this overtake gives his bold strategy the perfect opening!"
Exiting Turn 1, the position indicator on the steering wheel flicked to "8." In a single corner, Alex Sun had climbed from ninth to eighth.
He tightened his grip on the wheel, sweat beading at his fingertips. That one move had laid an ideal foundation for everything to come.
Now running eighth, Alex Sun could clearly feel the performance difference between his soft tyres and the supersoft runners ahead. On the straights, the pull of the slipstream grew stronger. He stopped worrying about position and instead relied on his deep familiarity with the circuit, precisely balancing throttle and steering while firmly defending the inside line.
Rookie driver Alex Sun, the so-called train driver, piloted his red locomotive through Monaco. With pinpoint line control, he bottled up the cars behind, forming the inevitable spectacle of the principality: the Monaco train.
He let out a soft chuckle over the TR radio, muttering to himself,
"Here comes the train. Premium service. Take your time and enjoy it."
"Look at this!" the Sky Sports commentator said with admiration. "Alex Sun has started the 'train'! He's using the stability of the soft tyres to lock down the entire supersoft pack behind him, completely controlling the rhythm! Is this the confidence behind his tyre choice?
He's given up launch advantage in exchange for mid-race tempo control. Once a train forms at Monaco, overtaking becomes almost impossible. Alex Sun has turned a passive situation into an active one! Look at those lines—accurate to the millimeter. Every apex is perfect. There's simply no room for the cars behind to even think about a move!"
Alex Sun continued to suppress the pack behind while matching the pace of the cars ahead, patiently waiting for the supersoft tyres to begin fading. This stalemate held until Lap 13.
On Lap 13, Mark's voice suddenly cut in, more urgent than before.
"Lundgaard Racing car stopped with smoke at the emergency exit. Virtual Safety Car deployed. Maintain delta and gaps. You gain one position—now P7. P6 ahead is Liam Lawson. Focus on Lawson and wait for the supersoft degradation window. Trust your rhythm. You can hold this."
Alex Sun immediately lifted to control his pace, using the breathing room to fine-tune his rhythm and keep the soft tyres in their optimal window. He was never waiting for his own tyres to come alive—his goal was to glide smoothly into the critical phase where the supersofts would fall away. Mark's words steadied his mind, and he settled in to wait.
On Lap 14, the Virtual Safety Car was withdrawn. Alex Sun resumed normal pace, still in seventh. Early in Lap 15, Mark reported again.
"Lundgaard's engine issue has worsened. Car confirmed retired, stopped at the Turn 4 emergency exit. Yellow flags ahead. Pass through calmly."
Alex Sun lifted as required and cruised through the yellow-flag zone without taking any risks. Once clear of Turn 4, he reset his focus, reestablished his rhythm, and waited patiently for Lap 20.
The laps ticked by quickly, and soon enough, Lap 20 arrived.
The window was open.
Ahead, the supersoft runners were clearly struggling. Their lines through the corners grew erratic, apexes were missed, and the loss of grip from tyre graining became impossible to hide.
Mark came back on the radio, professional but with a hint of teasing.
"Lawson in P6. Supersoft degradation fully kicked in—lap times dropping two to three tenths per lap. Attack window is open. The drop-off you wanted is here. Your turn."
Running the train had long since become dull. Alex Sun replied instantly.
"Got it, man. Got it. There are eighteen cars on this track suffering the same thing."
Mark didn't catch the joke. His voice shifted from confusion straight back to business.
"Eighteen cars? Don't get distracted. Focus on Lawson. Take down the first 'target'."
Alex Sun steadily ramped up the pace and began his assault on Liam Lawson in sixth. Monaco's narrow, twisting layout offered precious few overtaking chances, so he fixed his sights on the sequence from the tunnel exit to Turn 11, the Piscine.
One of the rare sections where slipstream and braking differences could make a pass possible, exit speed here decided everything.
He tucked in tight behind Lawson through the tunnel, closing the gap significantly in the draft. Feeling the pressure, Lawson tried to defend by braking early and hard at the tunnel exit to block the line.
But the grip disadvantage of the supersofts forced his braking point farther back with each attempt. His defense grew increasingly strained, the gap shrinking to half a car length, almost nose to tail.
The cars behind had already dropped away due to tyre degradation and no longer posed a threat.
After two laps of sustained pressure, the chance finally appeared before Turn 11. Lawson's supersoft tyres could no longer cope with repeated heavy braking. To avoid locking up, he lifted early, scrubbing speed. His line drifted outward, exposing the inside.
Alex Sun's eyes narrowed. He held the throttle a fraction longer and delayed his braking, trusting the stable grip of his soft tyres as he darted for the inside.
The nose pointed cleanly at the apex of the Piscine. A subtle turn of the wheel, and the car carved a smooth arc, pinning the line with millimeter precision. At Monaco, even the smallest error meant the barrier.
On corner exit, he buried the throttle. The car leapt forward, opening the gap immediately. The move was done—Alex Sun was up to sixth.
He exhaled, then instantly settled back into rhythm, denying Lawson any chance to respond.
"Overtake!" the commentator shouted. "Alex Sun gets it done! At the Piscine—one of the most unforgiving corners on the calendar—he delays the brake, cuts to the inside, and completely controls the line! Lawson's supersoft tyres finally give up, and the lap-time deficit is brutally exposed!
This is Alex Sun's patience on display—waiting seven full laps for the degradation window to open. From seventh to sixth, he's taken a huge step closer to the points! And look at the exit speed—soft tyres still in their sweet spot. He's pulling away already, leaving Lawson with no way back!"
...
(20 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / GhostParser