F1 Equestria: Duels of the Century

Round 4 (Azerbaijan), Duel 2: Sandbar VS Yona VS Viral Velocity VS Rarity (Qualifying)

F1 Equestria Duel series

Duel 2: SAN (Williams) VS YON (Williams) VS VRL (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) VS RAR (Renault)

Event Type: Qualifying

"Welcome once again to Formula One Equestria! We are in Baku City in Azerbaijan for the fourth round of the Formula One 2019 season and things are heating up quickly! Celestia still holds her lead in the Driver's Championship by a big margin, with some talented drivers hunting her down for the lead, with the Racing Point drivers joining in on the fun!"

"Don't forget, dear brother, about the Constructors' Championship. The Mercedes team is still in the lead, with Alfa-Romeo and Ferrari hunting them down! Also, like you said, Racing Point is also joining in on the fun. They've jumped from last to fourth in the standings! FOURTH! AFTER ONE ROUND! Lawrence Stroll has to be happy with that!"

"Yes, but now, we focus on the next round, which is held here, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for round 4 of the Formula 1 season of 2019! We are now at our first street course in the season and boy, what a track it is! We are looking forward to seeing the close-quarters racing in the final!"

"Yes, so true. But before we need to get to the final, we need to have the racers Duel to determine the final racers. So, without further ado, let's get the drivers going again!"

"Of course! Now, let's introduce the next four drivers in the next Qualifying round! First off, we have Sandbar of the Williams, alongside his teammate in Williams, Yona. But they also have Viral Velocity of the Mercedes team and Rarity of the Renault team facing them. Following the regular format of the Qualifying duel type, each driver will get one lap to set the fastest time that they can, following a rolling start. This time, since there are four drivers in each round, two will move on instead of one. And there will be 6 Duels instead of 12. However, if more that two drivers crash, another driver in a separate Duel who didn't make it to the final will take be allowed in. Oh! Looks like we got our first driver heading out of pit row!"

"It appears to be Yona, going first for Williams. She has a lot to prove, as the Williams FW42 has been constantly mocked around the world for it's slow speed. Now is the team's chance to show that the Williams is able to keep up with the pack. And Baku is the place to do it!"

"She is pulling out of pits for her rolling start, here we go for Duel 2!"

Moments earlier...
Williams team garage

"Yona, be careful," Sandbar told his yak friend, before she was about to hop into her FW42 to take her Qualifying lap. "Baku is not an easy circuit. If you're not careful, this track will swallow you up!"

"Sandbar not need to worry," Yona told him, as she grabbed her yak-sized helmet (which was decorated with traditional yak drawings and symbols, along with her yak-sized Williams racing suit), "Yona will be careful. But Yona will also set fastest time! Yaks best at both of those!" he then proceeded to her car, but before she could get in, Sandbar stopped her.

"Please, just be careful. And stay off the walls!" He said.

Yona just smiled and replied, "Yona will be careful," And with that, she put on her helmet, tightened the chinstrap and climbed into the cockpit of her car. The neck brace was placed behind her and she started the car up. The V6 Turbo Mercedes hybrid engine powering the FW42 roared to life, the fuel hose was disconnected and Yona roared out of the garage and onto pit row.

Sandbar only watched her go onto the track, stuck around the garage and watched Yona begin her rolling start.

As Yona raced around the track at a moderate pace, she instantly saw why Sandbar was concerned. Going through Sector 2, she saw how narrow the track was and even gulped when she took the fearsome Turn 8, the turn where her mentor, Robert Kubica (and Lightning Dust's and DangerDean's mentor, Charles Leclerc), crashed during Qualifying 1 (And Q2 for Leclerc). She knew that she needed to be careful going through that corner.

Passing through Sector 3, she opened up the taps and raced full throttle down the back straight. SHe passed the start/finish and started her lap, immediately on the brakes for Turn 1. She turned the car tightly and raced into the next corner and flowed through the track like a true champion. But she really needed to focus as she was approaching the Castle Section, and Turn 8. But she needed to post a fast lap. She had to.

As she slowed down and took Turn 7, a feeling of nervousness had worked its way into her consciousness and she started backing off the throttle down the straight leading to the turn. But once she got at the corner, she hit the brakes and turned in, the front didn't seem to want to turn the car around the corner,

Understeer. Yona tried hitting the brakes, but she was going too fast.

She crashed into the barrier at Turn 8 at 107 kph (just over 66 mph). However, the crash barrier at the corner did its job and adsorbed the impact and Yona remained unhurt.

'Yona? You okay?' Her race engineer asked, clearly concered.

"Yes. Yona okay. Little winded but okay," Yona replied, before letting out a sigh, "Yona sorry. Yak wrecked car in scary turn. Now, Yona not in final race,"

'Don't worry. You'll get another chance in Spain, next round. You better get your butt over to pit row. Sandbar is worried sick about you,'

"YONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sandbar cried out when she saw his best friend crash into the beginning of the Castle Section. He couldn't believe it. Had the steering failings come back? Immediately, he rushed to the engineer box and tapped Yona's race engineer on his shoulder. However, he held up a finger and told him to wait, while he communicated with Yona. And once he was done, he turned to face Sandbar.

"Was that a steering failing?" Sandbar asked, sternly.

"No. Steering column was working just fine. The data shows that she had understeer," The engineer replied, as he pointed towards the data. Now, Sandbar wasn't an engineer, but he could see that the data of Yona's run clearly showed that she had understeer.

Sandbar retreated back into the garage, as a medical car picked up Yona and the track-side engineers fixed the barrier for the next runner.

Moments later, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG estate medical car arrived at the Williams garage and Yona stepped out, unhurt. Instantly, Sandbar rushed up to her and embraced the yak.

"Nothing broken, Yona?" Sandbar asked. Yona just shook her head.

"Yona sorry, Sandbar. Yona tried but track very difficult. Too difficult for best yak," Yona then pulled Sandbar in close to her face and forced him to look into her big, olive-coloured eyes. "Sandbar, win for Yona. Promise Yona that you will win,"

There was no way that the pony colt could say no to such a cute face and to one of his friends. "I promise, Yona. I will win for you," Moments after he said this, he was called to his car, as he was the next to set a time. Embracing his yak friend one last time, he rushed to his FW42 and set off on his lap.

As he paced around Turn 8, and cruised through the Castle Section, he prayed to the Equestrian goddesses that his steering wouldn't fail, as a tight city circuit would be the last place he would want to have his steering fail. He was told by the Williams engineers that the fault was found and the steering was fixed, but he wasn't sure.

So, he prayed that the steering would hold.

Coming down to the straight, he hit the throttle and raced towards the line to start his lap. He saw the green flag wave and he started his lap, braking for Turn 1. Following through Turns 2, 3 and 4, he was 3.231 seconds faster than Yona. As he rounded the next set of turns, he knew that he was approaching Turn 8. Once more he prayed that nothing went wrong as she slowed for the corner and turned the wheels. But unlike Yona, his FW42 responded to his input and turned into the corner. He hit the apex with the correct line and raced up the small hill next the castle that the chicane got its name from.

Mentally, Sandbar breathed a sigh of relief. He had cleared the hardest section of the track. Now, all he had to do was post a fast time and win the Duel. Blasting through the much wider and faster curves of Turns 13, 14, 15 and 16, he began to shatter stereotypes about the FW42 on a small basis. No-one had ever seen a painfully slow FW42 drive at the speed Sandbar was pushing his Williams to ever before. And, oh boy, did it sound fast! As Sandbar blasted down the back straight, DRS wide open, he opened the taps fully and pushed his tuned ROKiT to the limit.

As as quickly as the pony could think, he crossed the finish line and completed his lap. "How about that?" Sandbar asked, confident he posted a quick time.

'Lap Time: 1.42.072. Well done! That was a quick lap!' His race engineer reported.

Then, Sandbar took a slow lap around the track before pulling into the pits and getting out of his car. Yona saw him and rushed up to him to give the pony a massive yak hug, but while she was rushing to him, she tripped on her hair and rolled to a stop in front of him, panting and wagging her tail like a dog.

Sandbar just smiled at the yak's antics and turned his attention to the leaderboard. On it, was the current grid positiona for the finals race:

Gallus - 1.40.733

Fluttershy - 1.40.971

Sandbar - 1.42.072

Ocellus - DNQ

Yona - DNQ

Celestia - DNQ

Viral Velocity - Yet To Run

Rarity - Yet To Run

Twilight Sparkle - Yet To Run

Rainbow Dash - Yet To Run

Pinkie Pie - Yet To Run

Applejack - Yet To Run

Lightning Dust - Yet To Run

Akula - Yet To Run

Luna - Yet To Run

Suri Polomare - Yet To Run

Cheese Sandwich - Yet To Run

Chrysalis - Yet To Run

Silverstream - Yet To Run

Gladmane - Yet To Run

Big Macintosh - Yet To Run

DangerDean - Yet To Run

Oscura Galaxia - Yet To Run

Spitfire - Yet To Run

So far, it seemed that he had set a pretty good lap time. Sure, it may not have been the best time, but at least it was competitive. He decided to head to the back and get some rest.

Viral was the next to head out, but this time, the Mercedes team was at a disadvantage. Both of the top drivers hated tight city circuits like Baku. Viral especially hated tight corners with no room to move and that meant she hated the Castle Section. But while taking her lap, she accidentally turned into Turn 8 too early, hit the inside barrier and crashed into the barriers. He run was over. And, oh boy, was Viral furious. Having crashed at the turn she hated the most, she began bashing the steering wheel and screaming profanities directed at her hatred of the Baku circuit. It took the entire pit crew, including the use of Akula's magic to calm her down when she got back to the pits.

Rarity didn't fare much better. While she was able to set a lap time, it wasn't the best she could've set. Rarity's lap time was a poor 1.42.745. While she was able to qualify for the final, she wouldn't be granted a high spot on the grid come finals.

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