Round 4: Azerbaijan
Final Race (36 Laps)

Starting Grid

1. Gallus (BWT Racing Point) - 1.40.733
2. Fluttershy (Red Bull Toro Rosso) - 1.40.971
3. Luna (Alfa-Romeo) - 1.41.103
4. Cheese Sandwich (Aston-Martin Red Bull) - 1.41.871
5. Pinkie Pie (Aston-Martin Red Bull) - 1.41.872
6. Twilight Sparkle (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) - 1.42.021.
7. Sandbar (Williams ROKiT) - 1.42.072
8. DangerDean (Scuderia Ferrari) - 1.42.112
9. Akula (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) - 1.42.476
10. Big Macintosh (McLaren) - 1.42.651
11. Rarity (Renault) - 1.42.745
12. Gladmane (HAAS) - N/A

"Hello, once again! Welcome back to Round 4 of the 2019 F1 Equestria Duels series, here in Baku! I am joined once again by my brother and fellow commentator, Flam!"

"I've got to say this, brother, but I am quite looking forward to having some special guests with us for next few rounds. It gets quite lonely up here in the broadcasting booth and I just can't wait to meet our first guest!"

"Well, hold on to your patience. We've got a final to run! Quite a few mid-pack driver are taking to the grid today, after a series of terrible accidents plagued the top teams during the Duels. And believe me, seeing Celestia, our current points leader, crash into the barriers at Turn 8 during her hot lap surprised a lot of fans! Me included!"

"Yes, but you forget that her sister, Luna in on the track today! And we've got very talented drivers on the circuit. But I still have no clue who is going to win!"

"Looks like we are about to find out! The drivers are locking into the grid for the start of the race! Hold onto your hats, viewers! We are about to get underway, here in Azerbaijan!"

Sandbar knew that he was in for a tough time on the narrow streets of Baku. But being the chilled pony that he was, the stress didn't bother him. All he had to do was race as hard as he could and give it his best shot.

'Sandbar, radio check. Radio check,' His race engineer, Tobias Knight, checked in.

"Copy, loud and clear, Tobias," The colt replied.

'All right, comms are all good. Stand by for the lights,'

"Let's show the world that Williams is no push-over!"

As all of the drivers waited for the lights to appear, Sandbar looked over some of his opponents. Being the only WIlliams in the field since Yona crashed during his Duel, he had quite a bit of work cut out for him. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie sat directly ahead of him, along with Dean and Akula behind him. Some of the best drivers in the series had him surrounded on the grid. But he knew that Akula hated the Baku circuit, Dean would probably struggle with the tighter corners, Twilight would go 'Twilighting' while under the pressure of pack racing and Pinkie... he wasn't sure what to expect with her.

But he shook those thoughts away as the first red light appeared on the tree. Some of the other drivers began readying their engines for the start. But Sandbar waited for the third red light to appear before engaging the clutch and pushing the Mercedes M10 EQ Power + engine in his Williams to full rev. Eventually, engine revving filled the soundwaves on TVs across both Earth and Equestria (as well as the air in Baku), as the F1 cars sat on the grid, waiting for the lights to go out.

Eventually, they did and the cars blasted off the grid.

"And it's lights out and away we go!"

Sandbar didn't have the best start, but it wasn't the worst as the entire field spread out over the somewhat narrow straight, heading into the first corner. The colt hadn't gained any positions but he didn't lose any either, before passing through the first turn. Looking on ahead, he saw the blue Racing Point of Gallus easily pulling away from the field.

Gallus had shown no signs of fear or stress throughout the entire race weekend and easily started pulling away from the field going into Turn 2. Fluttershy was the next driver after him and had to hold off advances made by Luna and both of the Red Bull drivers looking to get past. However, despite having a non-pace setting car, Sandbar easily held a comfortable spot in 7th. However, he needed to get to the front of the field in order to make his point. But he knew exactly how he was going to achieve it.

Only 2 laps in, there was a clear pattern emerging. As Gallus easily pulled away and extended his lead, the more powerful front-runner cars began to make advances going down the back straight. Both Cheese and Pinkie successfully managed to overtake both Luna and Fluttershy down the straight before Lap 3. Sandbar was the only exception to this, as his FW42 was easily keeping pace with the two Mercedes W10s of Akula and Twilight and the Ferrari of Dean.

On Lap 5, Akula had managed to successfully managed to pass both Dean and Sandbar on the back straight, just after Turn 17. But Sandbar stayed with Akula's slipstream and managed to pass Twilight when Akula did the same in Turn 20. However, Twilight saw that Sandbar had overtaken her Mercedes and she was in utter shock.

"I JUST GOT PASSED BY A WILLIAMS!!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??!!!!" Twilight cried out.

'He was in Akula's draft and was riding him past you,' Her race engineer explained.

"OH, SHUT UP BARRY!!!! THAT'S NOT THE POINT!!!!"

And when Akula saw that Sandbar was following him and letting the changeling do the work for him, he chimed in as well.

"There's something definitely wrong with my car. There's a Williams keeping pace with me," He reported.

'Looks like he's using you to get to the front of the field,' His race engineer pointed out.

"Somepony needs to get him off me! I can feel his gaze burrowing into my helmet, he that f****** close!"

Going into Lap 10, Luna was trailing behind the two Red Bulls of Cheese and Pinkie, with Fluttershy close behind her. But coming down the main straight to begin Lap 11, Luna suddenly pulled into the pits. As she cruised down pit road at the required speed limit, Fluttershy took P4 and the gap behind her to Akula was closing rapidly. She pulled into the pit, took on a set of fresh Mediums and soon exited the pits, with Akula just crossing the start/finish line at that moment.

In that moment, she began her undercut attempt on the three Red Bull cars.

'I thank thee for such a quick cease. Now, I shalt hunt those folk down!" Luna thanked, before continuing her race.

One third of the way into the race (In English, Lap 12), there was a battle for 10th going on between Big Mac, Rarity and Gladmane. All three of them were in teams that were in lower spots on the Constructors Championship than the team bosses would like and all three were pushing to make sure that they secured that one point for a P10 finish and hopefully push for a higher place finish.

However, on the very next lap, everything changed. Going down the straight to start Lap 13, Big Mac in the McLaren was holding off attempts at passing by Rarity and Gladmane, in the Renault and HAAS respectively. However, while going down the back straight that lead to Turn 3, his MCL34 then hit a drain cover that tore up the underside of his car, causing him to slow down and have to pit on that lap.

This, in turn, allowed Gladmane to capitalize on the incident and passed Bic Mac on the inside before the yellow flag flew in Sector 1, with Rarity hot on his rear-wing. But as the two cleared the first sector, Gladmane then accidentally locked the brakes going into Turn 5 and flat-spotted his tyres. Even worse, his forward momentum then carried him down the escape road on that corner, allowing Rarity to take 10th place. Gladmane then performed a poor J-turn and got back onto the track, hoping to pit for a fresh set of tyres.

But the sudden turmoils weren't over yet. On Lap 18, Twilight and Dean began battling for 8th, as despite being in top-tier cars, their nerves prevented them from reaching the top at this track. However, Dean had more experience with racing fast cars in heart-pounding instances and was proving to be much better at handling the situation then Twilight, who began 'Twilighting' again.

This allowed Dean to take her under the brakes at Turn 7. And Twilight wasn't happy.

"NOW DEAN JUST PASSED ME!!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME???!!!!" She cried out.

'Just keep calm. You'll get him back!'

Eventually, most of the drivers had to come in for new tyres and replace their older ones. All except for one. Luna. She then inherited the lead as all of the drivers pulled into the pit for fresh tyres. But as Dean cruised to the exit, all of a sudden, Rarity came out of her pit took take a spot from Dean. However, her release was a little to aggressive and pulled alongside Dean's Ferrari, almost forcing him into the wall.

"Whoa, geez! Rarity just put up a very aggressive release and nearly sent me into the wall!" Dean reported.

'Roger that. Car looks okay,' His race engineer reported.

After the little Rarity-Dean incident in the pit, the race positions had changed drastically. Now, the two Red Bulls were leading, with Gallus, Fluttershy, Luna, Akula and Sandbar chasing them down. And it didn't take long for that to change, as on Lap 22, Gallus caught the two and easily took the lead from them in Turns 3 and 4.

However, everything then went horribly wrong two laps later. Going into Turn 1, Cheese had gotten quite a bit of speed down the straight, riding in Pinkie's slipstream and using his DRS. He made a move to overtake the pink Red Bull on the inside but as he made his move, Pinkie aggressively defended her line and moved to block. But Cheese was coming in hot and the stallion slammed on his brakes. But he couldn't slow down enough.

Cheese's RB15 went up the back of Pinkie's car. The rear-end of Pinkie's RB was lifted onto the nose of Cheese's RB, breaking the yellow Red Bull's front wing in the process. Then, she slid off the nose and started skidding down the escape road, flat-spotting her tyres. Cheese, meanwhile, ran over bits of his own wing, before joining Pinkie on the escape road. While both cars were okay to continue, Pinkie needed another set of tyres and Cheese needed the same and a new front wing.

With the two Red Bulls out of it, the top 4 spots were left to the following drivers:

Gallus #32 Racing Point
Luna #101 Alfa-Romeo
Akula #98 Mercedes
Sandbar #17 Williams

But with only quite a few laps to go, everything was still up for grabs. The laps ticked by quickly and Gallus began to pull away again, leaving the Princess of the Night, the Demon Lord and Sandbar to battle for third. And with only 3 laps to go, Sandbar was waiting for his chance at at Top 3 finish.

'Sandbar, our data is showing that performing an overtake after Turn 1 will get the best result for this race,' Tobias reported.

"I disagree, Tobias. I have a plan and it involves with me having to stay with Akula's slipstream," Sandbar disagreed, doing all he could to stay on the tail of the black and red Mercedes in front of him. Akula was faster in the straights but Sandbar could easily catch him in the corners and while he stayed in the changeling's slipstream.

Eventually, the laps ticked down until the white flag flew with one lap to go. Gallus had a big enough gap from the other drivers and was easily going to claim the win. But Luna, Akula and Sandbar were still battling for 2nd going into the final lap. And knowing Akula needed a high-placed result after two races of terrible results, in order to stay ahead of the Alfa-Romeo team in the standings, he knew what Akula would try.

Passing through Sector 2, Akula hammered on the tail of Luna but didn't make any attempt to past, as there was nowhere to move. But as the three cars entered Sector 3 and raced around the fast corners before the back straight, Akula began to close slowly and stay with Luna's slipstream towards the final DRS zone. And when the DRS zone came, Akula made his move. Going down the back straight, Akula moved to the outside of Luna and made an effort to overtake. Of course, Gallus had already finished the race, taking the win.

Then, Sandbar made his move.

As Akula successfully passed Luna and moved back into line, Sandbar came out from behind him and took the Demon Lord on the outside. He only just beat Akula to the line, by the tip of his Williams's wing.

Noone could believe what had just happened. And the electronic timing confirmed the impossible. Sandbar had beaten Akula to the line by no less than 0.010 tenths of a second! It was unbelievable!

'We've got the results now,' Tobias reported to Sandbar, 'Gallus, P1. You've finished P2! Well done, you've put Williams on the podium once again!!'

"That's more like it! YAHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sandbar exclaimed, punching his hoof into the sky. And back at the Williams garage, the pit crew and team members were in complete celebration upon seeing that Sandbar had brought the slow, heavy and off-pace FW42 to a podium finish in its 8th event start of the season (including the main season).

As Sandbar brought the car around into the victory box, both Akula's Mercedes and Gallus' Racing Point were already there, behind the '3' and '1' signs respectively. Akula was celebrating with his pit crew and Viral, who all felt proud and amazed with Akula's podium result at a track he doesn't like. Gallus, meanwhile, was also doing the same thing, celebrating his first victory.

But once Sandbar stopped his Williams in front of the '2', everything changed. As Sandbar jumped out of his FW42, both Akula and Gallus approached him and the three embraced each other. All of them were proud of each other for finishing this agonising street course.

And Sandbar swore that he heard Akula whisper to him, 'Good race out there, Sandbar. Well done,'

Author's Note

Results

1. Gallus - 25 + 1 points (for Fastest Lap)
2. Sandbar - 18 points
3. Akula - 15 points
4. Luna - 12 points
5. Fluttershy - 10 points
6. DangerDean - 8 points
7. Twilight Sparkle - 6 points
8. Pinkie Pie - 4 points
9. Cheese Sandwich - 2 points
10. Rarity - 1 point
11. Gladmane - 0 points
12. Big Macintosh - 0 points

Driver's Championship

1. Celestia - 63 points
2. Akula - 50 points
3. Viral Velocity - 42 points
4. Gallus - 32 points
5. Twilight Sparkle - 31 points
6. DangerDean - 28 points
7. Sandbar - 22 points
8. Rainbow Dash - 19 points
9. Luna - 18 points
10. Lightning Dust - 18 points
11. Fluttershy - 16 points
12. Chrysalis - 16 points
13. Silverstream - 15 points
14. Oscura Galaxia - 12 points
15. Pinkie Pie - 6 points
16. Cheese Sandwich - 6 points
17. Yona - 6 points
18. Rarity - 3 points
19. Gladmane - 2 points
20. Suri Polomare - 1 point
21. Applejack - 1 point
22. Big Macintosh - 0 points
23. Ocellus - 0 points
24. Spitfire - 0 points

Constructors Championship

1. Mercedes-AMG Petronas - 123 points
2. Alfa-Romeo Racing - 95 points
3. Scuderia Ferrari - 65 points
4. BWT Racing Point - 45 points
5. ROKiT WIlliams F1 Racing - 28 points
6. Aston-Martin Red Bull Racing - 20 points
7. HAAS F1 Team - 19 points
8. Red Bull Toro Rosso - 15 points
9. Renault F1 Team - 4 points
10. McLaren F1 - 1 point