In Q3 at Albert Park, it was P4.
He didn't look at the Arcadia car as it passed.
Leo didn't look at him.
He rolled into the Arcadia box and the mechanics were already there. Not in their work positions. Standing. Facing the car as it came in. Pete at the front. Sam at the side. The two junior engineers near the back. Anya at the garage entrance, slightly separate, one hand pressed flat against the wall beside the door.
He stopped the car.
He killed the engine.
The silence that followed was the specific silence of a car that had just run the fastest lap of a qualifying session and was now sitting on the garage floor, ticking and cooling, finished.
Leo sat in the cockpit for three seconds.
Then he pulled the steering wheel off its connector. Unclipped the HANS device. Waited while a mechanic reached in and helped with the harness. He pressed both hands flat on the cockpit sides and pushed himself up and out in one movement.
