The Mechanic - The Secret World Of The F1 Pitlane by Marc 'Elvis' Priestley

Author:Marc 'Elvis' Priestley [Priestley, Marc 'Elvis']
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Sport related
ISBN: 9781787290006
Google: BkkwMQAACAAJ
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2017-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

12

BLUE HANDS

I was pretty disappointed when Kimi announced he’d be leaving McLaren after the 2006 season, mainly because we’d so far failed to take a title with him and that would’ve been a fairy-tale ending to the magical story we’d all written together. Annoyingly, though we’d come very close to winning the World Title on two occasions, our cars and engines had failed him too often. I couldn’t begrudge his move to Ferrari, though, after all the pay was pretty good and, well … it was Ferrari.

Kimi was one of the fastest drivers I’d ever worked with and the way in which he closed out the 2005 season was testament to that. After the American debacle, we won seven of the next ten races and did well to stay in touch with Alonso in his quick and reliable Renault. One race win, though, stands out for me as possibly the best and most celebrated of my career – despite it happening in Japan – one Grand Prix after Fernando had finally secured the 2005 title.

There was only the Constructors’ Championship left to compete for at that stage, which was more than enough motivation for me, but our luck seemed to run out pretty quickly. The wet second half of qualifying had hindered the frontrunners’ laps more than the back-of-the-pack drivers, who’d been scheduled to go out earlier when the conditions were more favourable. Alonso had qualified back in sixteenth, with Kimi one place behind and teammate Montoya another further back. It was a topsy-turvy grid, but those were the races that Kimi and the fans often loved the most: he had to fight his way through the field, but had a car more than capable of doing so.

He flew out of the traps like a bullet, picking off the back markers with a series of sensational moves, brimming with confidence as he moved quickly up the order. Montoya crashed out, which massively dented our ability to score Constructors’ points in what was still a very tight battle with Renault, but Kimi forged on. It was thrilling to watch him advance, getting to within reach of the next batch of cars, and the next. He was doing so well, the pressure to deliver fast, smooth pitstops became even greater as the race went on, but each one went well, thankfully, and Kimi’s charge continued. After the final stop, he emerged from the pitlane just two seconds behind the leader, Giancarlo Fisichella.

This was it: a sprint to the flag. We caught Fisichella, but passing him was another thing altogether. The pair battled wheel to wheel; we could barely watch. Kimi closed at the same point on each lap, but the Renault driver was wise to the challenge and defended successfully each time. The laps ticked away and it looked as though we’d have to settle for second place; still an incredible achievement having started in seventeenth. But, going into the last lap of the race, Kimi put the pressure on again, and this time a small mistake from Fisichella meant our closing speed was just too much to defend.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.