Duel Highlights
Round 5: Spanish Grand Prix

Duel 2: VRL (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) VS GAL (BWT Racing Point)

After the heartbreaking duel (in Pinkie's case, anyway), was a duel that showed that Mercedes was back. Viral Velocity was facing off against the winner in Azerbaijan, Gallus of Racing Point. Viral had a promising showing in Australia and China but in Bahrain and Azerbaijan, she had suffered setback after setback. But now she was back and in full force.

Once the race had started, Gallus didn't stand a chance. Almost immediately, she had passed the Racing Point and began setting blistering lap times! At one point, she had set a faster lap time than her mentor, Valterri Bottas' fastest lap in Qualifying 3 that got him pole in the main race.

Gallus could not catch up to the expertly-driven Mercedes and was eliminated within 2 laps.

Duel 3: OSC (Aston-Martin Red Bull) VS LTD (Scuderia Ferrari)

The next Duel was between two drivers of rival teams; Oscura of Red Bull was taking on Lightning Dust of the Ferrari team. But as the two cars pulled out onto the grid, everyone and pony had noticed that the Mission Winnow sponsorship decals on not only Lightning's Ferrari, but also the other Equestrian Series Ferraris.

You see, at the start of the season in Australia, Celestia and Luna became suspicious when during the main race, the Mission Winnow sponsorship decals were removed from Vettel and Leclerc's cars during their race but had stayed on for the Equestrian race. But when they saw that they had only been removed for the race in Australia, they began an investigation. And after much searching and questioning, they found out that Mission Winnow was another name for Philip Morris International, who are the owners of the Malboro brand.

And when the princesses asked about and found out what product that Malboro was, they were furious.

Outraged that their ponies in Scuderia Ferrari were driving cars with cigarette sponsorship on them without their consent, the sisters demanded that the team removed the Mission Winnow decals for the rest of the season. While Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto tried to get Philips Morris International to back them up, pressure from the Royalty of Equestria and the FIA (who were backing them up) forced the team to remove the sponsorship decals for the rest of the season, starting with the Spanish Grand Prix. And while Mission Winnow brand owner Philip Morris tried to make a legal case against the sisters for removing the decals without his consent, he lost that case as well.

Now, the pony-driven Ferraris were racing without the Mission Winnow branding, much to Binotto's and Morris's ire.

Both cars were close, but now that Ferraris were now back on familiar territory, they began to perform as well. The long and sweeping curves of the Catalunya circuit suited the more powerful and faster SF90 and Lightning was easily able to pull away.

But Oscura wouldn't throw in the towel like Rarity and pushed hard. But all five laps came to an end, with Lightning coming out on top.

Duel 4: OCE (Red Bull Toro Rosso) VS YON (WIlliams)

Next up, was a face-off between two mid-to-back runners. Yona would be taking on Ocellus. The shy changeling in question hadn't even scored a point yet. Hell, she hadn't even qualified for a single final! And to make matters worse, Yona had fitted the same upgrades that Sandbar FW42 had to her Williams, to make it faster. And it was these upgrades that got Sandbar a P2 finish at Baku.

But as the two took to the track, her fears were anything but reality. The upgrades that were fitted to Yona's Williams only added more weight to her already-heavy FW42, negating all the power that the upgrades were supposed to provide and affecting the downforce and agility. Yona's 'upgraded' Williams was more prone to understeer with all the weight and she had no chance.

Ocellus easily beat the yak and Yona had the upgrades removed from Williams for the next round.

Duel 5: RBD (Scuderia Ferrari) VS BMI (McLaren)

Next up, was the Mission Winnow-removed Ferrari of Rainbow Dash was against the McLaren of Big Macintosh. Big Mac was really pushing for points after running two finals and not scoring a single point. And he was really flying in his pace! However, this time, his and Applejack's McLarens were running without their A Better Tomorrow branding. After the Royal Sisters had won their 'Mission Winnow' case, they immediately began searching for other front companies that promoted tobacco companies.

And after some investigation with the help of the FIA, they found that one of McLaren's sponsors (the aforementioned A Better Tomorrow) was owned by British American Tobacco and asked McLaren team principal, Andreas Seidl, to remove the branding for the rest of the season. And Seidl, not wanting the two sisters' wrath, obliged and had them removed.

However, no matter how hard that Macintosh drove, his MCL34 just wasn't fast enough to catch Dash and he was eliminated easily. Dash was back on a roll.

Duel 6: DNG (Scuderia Ferrari) VS GLA (HAAS)

One of the most unexpected results of this round, Dean was facing Gladmane of the HAAS team. The start was as one would expect; Dean easily started pulling away and was about to make it into the final via Mercy. But going into Turn 13 (Europcar), all of a sudden, his right-front tyre then blew and ripped off the suspension on that side. Out of control, Dean skidded off the track and into the gravel. Luckily, the gravel slowed the Ferrari before it hit the barriers.

Dean had to forfeit, giving the win to Gladmane. However, a select few believed that Gladmane had tampered with Dean's SF90 before the race. Applejack demamded to see the pit stall surveillance and she did so alongside FIA stewards. However, after going over the whole footage, there was no evidence of Gladmane tampering with his car.

Also, one of the Ferrari engineers assigned to Dean's car talked, saying that he knew that something was wrong with the tyre pressure but didn't tell anyone, because he thought that the tyre would last the five laps (but he also stated that this is the first time that he has done this, due to being newly hired). As a result, the FIA dropped the investigation and Gladmane was allowed to keep the victory.

Duel 7: SIL (BWT Racing Point) VS LUN (Alfa-Romeo)

Both of the drivers in Duel 7 were teammates to really talented drivers; Luna of Alfa-Romeo was taking on Silverstream of Racing Point. Both of these drivers had teammates that have won previous rounds and needed their own wins. Celestia had won the Bahrain and Chinese Grand Prixs, while Gallus had won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in the previous round. Now, their teammates wanted to see themselves on the podium.

The two raced with all they had and it was Silverstream who came out on top.

Duel 8: CHR (HAAS) VS CHS (Aston-Martin Red Bull)

It was supposed to be a Red Bull victory, but ended up different, when Cheese Sandwich was to take on Chrysalis of the HAAS team. However, during the race, Chrysalis' upgraded VF-19 was able to easily keep pace with the Red Bull.

This made Cheese panic and he went off the course at Turn 3, before his RB15 was brought to a stop in the gravel. He was out.

Duel 9: AKU (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) VS CEL (Alfa-Romeo)

This time, the two top-placed drivers in the championship were facing off. Whoever made it to the finals would get to have the lead in the championship. Now, Akula had just come out of a very heartpounding and sweat-inducing race in Baku and had this race to get some more points in before the next round at his old nemesis: Monaco. And he needed the points, or Celestia would definitely have extended her lead.

During the race, the princess of the sun once again demonstrated her superior driving skill and kept in the lead for most of the race and was blocking any attempt of Akula getting past, despite the changeling having a faster car. And Akula wasn't having any more of it. Going down the back-straight, Akula pulled into Celestia's slipstream and rode the Golden Alfa's tail towards Turn 1, DRS wide open. And as Celestia broke for Turn 1, Akula pulled out of the slipstream, overtook Celestia and then broke for the corner.

It was a perfect braking-attack move, one that would make Daniel Ricciardo proud. And it was this move that scored Akula a place in the finals.

Duel 10: TWI (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) VS SAN (ROKiT Williams)

Next up, two drivers with very different personalities. Sandbar of Williams was taking of Twilight of Mercedes. Ever since his P2 finish at Baku, confidence was at an all-time high for him and he was ready for Twilight. But Twilight knew that she had to get a result here before heading to Monaco for the next round, so she would have to beat Sandbar.

However, once again, Sandbar shattered public stereotypes and easily beat Twilight in his specially-upgraded FW42.

Duel 11: SPI (Scuderia Ferrari) VS SUR (Renault)

Duel 11 was to be a white-wash and an even bigger disaster for the Renault team. Suri was taking on Spitfire in this duel and the writing was on the wall for the fashionista mare. No matter how hard Suri pushed the car, she could not catch Spitfire and called for mercy after three laps.

Duel 12: APP (McLaren) VS FLT (Red Bull Toro Rosso)

Finally, the Elements of Honesty and Kindness were taking each other on. But Applejack seemed to be pushing her McLaren hard, fighting for a spot in the finals. She knew that the team needed points to get them out of last and Applejack definitely delivered.

It also helped that Fluttershy wasn't being aggressive at all with her driving, sealing Applejack's place in the final.

Author's Note

In case you were wondering, the Mission Winnow and A Better Tomorrow scandal is a real thing. And it isn't the first time something like this has happened in motorsport, trust me.