Round 6: Monaco
Final Race (39 laps)

Starting Grid

1. Gallus (BWT Racing Point) - 1:10.210
2. Rarity (Renault) - 1:11.020
3. Ocellus (Red Bull Toro Rosso) - 1:11.201
4. Suri Polomare (Renault) - 1:11.223
5. Luna (Alfa-Romeo) - 1:11.534
6. Fluttershy (Red Bull Toro Rosso) - 1:11.611
7. Chrysalis (HAAS) - 1:11.703
8. Viral Velocity (Mercedes-AMG Petronas) - 1:12.402
9. Rainbow Dash (Scuderia Ferrari) - 1:14.400
10. Gladmane (HAAS) - 1:16.754
11. Yona (ROKiT WIlliams) - N/A
12. Silverstream (BWT Racing Point) - N/A

"Welcome back to the 2019 Formula One Equestria Series! I'm Flim, joined by Flam and Oliver Panis for the 6th round of the 2019 season. Welcome to the Final Race of the Monaco Grand Prix! Our drivers have lined up on the grid and they are away on their Formation Lap, along the Riviera!"

"Let's take a look at the grid! Gallus, claiming another Pole Position in his career! Rarity chasing him down from P2. Rarity has put Renault on the front row once again, just behind the griffon. Following her, Ocellus in the Toro Rosso, taking her highest starting position so far in the season and Suri Polomare on P4,"

"Luna and Fluttershy are next on the grid, with Chrysalis in the HAAS just behind, now recovered after seeing her lover hit the barriers in his Duel. Viral Velocity is just behind, the only Mercedes on the grid for Lauda. Many are hoping that she pulls through,"

"Rainbow Dash and Gladmane are just behind Viral, with Yona and Silverstream rounding out the grid, having failed to set times, but got the furthest on the course before crashing. The racers are coming back around and locking into the grid, we are about to get underway!"

This was Rarity's time to shine. Time to prove that the Renault team was no pushover and was still powerful.

Only two things stood in her way; Gallus ahead of her in the Racing Point and 39 laps of the utmost concentration in the most beautiful location on the F1 calendar.

Rarity waited for the lights, when her race engineer, Mireille Jacquet, came over the radio. 'Madame Rarity, radio check,'

"Loud and clear, darling," Rarity replied.

'Roger, lights shall come on in a moment. Bonne chance,'

There was no more radio chatter after that for a while, as Rarity had given her team strict instructions not to talk to her during the race, unless absolutely necessary. This was vital in helping Rarity keep her focus on this track, a fact which the team understood and carried out.

The first light on the tree lit up. Rarity fired up her Renault E-Tech 19 engine, getting the V6 Turbo Hybrid to full rpm. Her car was soon joined by the others as the second light, then the third and the fourth and the fifth. And the lights went out and the race began.

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

Rarity got a really good jump and pulled alongside Gallus in the Racing Point on the run down to Sainte Devote, a whole pack of cars behind them. The griffon and the mare took the first turn side-by-side, as the track tighented into a bottleneck. Going through the first turn, Dash and Gladmane cut the corner in order to avoid colliding with Viral in the Mercedes. As a result, neither driver was given a penalty.

All the way up the hill and through Massenet, Rarity and Gallus were still side-by-side. But as they approached Casino Square, someone would have to back off.

Surprisingly, that someone was Gallus. Approaching Turn 4, Gallus saw that the Renault was still on his side and he knew that somepony would need to back off or they would collide. But Rarity would not back off, so Gallus had to concede and gave Rarity the lead as she lead the pack towards Mirabeau Haute.

But going through Mirabeau, things started to go wrong. Gladmane tried to make a pass at the tight right hairpin. But eh should've known better as during his attempted overtake, Dash blocked and shoved the HAAS in the wall, snapping off bits of the front wing.

"F****** DAMMIT!!!! SHE TURNED IN ON ME!!!! I have front wing damage! Front wing damage!" Gladmane cried out over the radio.

"F****** idiot. He just attempted a pass at Turn 5. What was he thinking?!" Rainbow cried out, utterly amazed that the HAAS driver would try such a stupid move.

'Copy, we are looking into it. We had the onboard at the time,' Barsotti replied to her.

Going through the Grand Hotel Hairpin, Rarity still held the lead from Gallus, with Ocellus and Suri chasing him down. In fact, all the drivers went through the hairpin single file, except for one.

In a desperate attempt to gain more positions early into the race, Chrysalis tried to squeeze past the Toro Rosso of Fluttershy. However, the move was never on and all Chrysalis did was make contact with the wheels of the STR14 and bounced a bit. There was no damage, however, and both cars continued on.

A few laps in and there were no DNFs yet. But that wouldn't last for long. In Lap 5, and going through Portier, SIlverstream was going to make an attempt to pass Gladmane on the inside. However, the hippogriff suddenly straighted out going through the corner and hit Gladmane. But it got worse, as the impact tipped the HAAS onto its side and forced it to roll into the barriers.

'Gladmane, are you okay?' His race engineer asked.

"Uh-huh-huh! Just tipped over by an idiot in the Force India, or whatever the buck it's called now," The conpony replied, clearly upset about being the first car to retire.

Things weren't any better with Racing Point, as on the home straight, the marshalls were showing a black flag with the #36 below it. Brooks saw this and reported this to the hippogriff. 'Silverstream, we have a black flag. Box this lap and we'll get the car into the garage,'

"WHAT?! WHY????!!!!!" Silverstream cried out, utterly shocked.

'Stand by, I'm checking with the stewards... Okay, black flag is for forcing another car out of the way and putting another driver in harm. So, box this lap. Box this lap,'

It took a moment for the mess to be cleared up, but the Sector 2 yellow flag was put away and the race went green again. However, with Gladmane down and Silverstream black flagged, this left Yona in last place. A place where she didn't want to see her Williams.

'Ok, Yona. You can push on this set, so bring it in! Currently, Rarity has the quickest car in free air,' Her race engineer reported.

"Yona know what Yona needs to do! Just let best yak focus!" Yona said, just wanting to focus on the course.

More laps passed and Viral had worked her way from P8, all the way up to P6. But on Lap 16, things went wrong again. In a desperate attempt to get past Chrysalis in the Tunnel, Luna tried to pass her on the inside line. But this resulted in her losing control and exiting out the other end the wrong way and her right side wheels missing.

This accident brought out the safety car, which didn't please Viral at all, as she was coming in to pit and warm up her tyres.

'Viral, stay out! Stay out!' Her race engineer immediately called out, as the safety car left the pits.

"Why?! I need to warm my tyres, Neon! They'll lose traction if I don't!" Viral said back, as she caught up with the pack and slowed down to keep with the safety car rules.

'Luna has crashed at the Tunnel straight. Yellow flags are being shown in all sectors and the safety car is out,'

"Buck! Buck! BUCK!!!!! CELESTIA DAMMIT!!!!!" Viral swore, as she tailed behind the Toro Rosso of Ocellus and put her music back on in order to chill out

After a few more laps, the safety car pulled in and the race went green again. But a few laps later, tragedy struck again. Due to Viral taking the next lap under green to warm her tyres, Chrysalis and Yona had moved up to 6th and 7th respectively. However, on Lap 24, both pulled into the pits. Chrysalis was first into the pits and she changed her worn Softs for fresh Mediums.

But as Chrysalis was released, she pulled out of the pits right when Yona was pulling into her pit lane! The two collided with each other and both cars had to be retired. The pit crews lifted up and dragged the two wrecked cars into their respective garage areas, both drivers classed as DNF. But since the incident didn't take place on the track and all the wreckage was cleared within minutes, there was no yellow flags and the race continued on.

But the green flags didn't last for long. Now lagging behind the leaders, Dash was getting very desperate. The car she was being held by, was none other than Viral Velocity in the Mercedes. She had recently changed to Mediums and was driving slower than Dash, who was still on very warn Softs.

Now, Dash was getting very annoyed with this "slow driving". So, in absolute desperation, Dash then attempted to make a pass on Viral. However, she had attempted to pass on the outside of Viral at Tabac. A move which is, to put bluntly, is incredibly stupid.

As a result, Dash performed a Maldonado, tripped over her front wing and went into the barriers, taking some of the barriers with her. Happily, Viral was able to bridge the gap between the barrier and the Ferrari taking the barriers with her and was able to stay on the lead lap. However, the incident caused the race to be red flagged and some of the laps were skipped over, so the race finished on schedule. This left the race with only 7 laps to go, because the wreckage to some time to clear up.

The red flag conditions were eventually ended and the race continued. Rarity and Suri now held the top two positions, with Gallus behind them, who had set the Race Lap Record earlier in the race. However, the griffon was pushing his Racing Point to the limits, trying to get back into the lead that was taken by the two Renaults.

Eventually, he found his limits and lost control exiting the Swimming Pool section. His RP19 went into the wall and the contact punctured his right-side tyres, meaning he couldn't drive away and was rendered. However, given the fact that there was still very few laps left to run, Gallus was given the Fastest Lap point, despite the fact that he crashed.

Also, the wreckage wasn't terrible and could be cleaned up easily. As a result, only Sector 3 was given the yellow flag, meaning that Sector 1 and 2 were still in green flag racing conditions. It was all about to come to ahead in the final few laps.

The yellow flags were dropped in Sector 3 and the race went all green with on 5 laps to go. Now, Viral was in P5 and thanks to the yellow flag, was now within striking distance of Ocellus in the Toro Rosso. Knowing that Ocellus wasn't a very aggressive driver, the second Crimson Arrow began pushing for 4th place and get as much points as possible and maybe get Fluttershy as well and claim the podium, just like Akula did in Baku.

But she now only had a small amount of laps to pass two drivers on the track with very little places to pass. And given the fact that the track was very short, those laps were soon running out. On Lap 37, she decided to make her move on the Toro Rosso. Heading down towards the Nouvelle Chicane, Viral moved to the inside and attempted to overtake Ocellus for 4th. However, Ocellus seemed to not know that Viral as attempting to overtake and turned in on her.

Luckily, Viral only suffered from some front wing damage and could keep racing. However, she was livid that the young reformed changeling would attempt such a manoeuvre.

'Good try, V! You'll get her eventually!'

"Yeah, just turns in when I try to overtake. I can see why Akula doesn't like the reformed changelings that much,"

And in Viral's desperation to catch back up with Ocellus, she hit the sausage kerbs at the Swimming Pool section and nearly spun out. Luckily, she was able to save it.

One lap to go. Rarity was still holding the lead from her team, with Suri attempting to take lead from her teammate and claim the first win for Renault. However, the team boss wasn't very happy that the earth pony was trying to take Rarity's well deserved victory and gave Suri a Multi-Map 2-1 order.

Happily, Suri realised what Rarity was going through and that she was pushing hard to claim the victory. So, she did as she was told and backed off. However, she was still within range of Rarity to ensure a Renault 1-2 finish and NOT a Renault-Toro Rosso 1-2 finish.

Despite how hard Ocellus pushed, Suri was unwilling to give an inch. And soon, it was all over. The two Renaults passed through Antony Noghes and pulled side-by-side, with Suri pulling behind her unicorn by about a front wing length, in order to let Rarity have the victory with a symbolic finish.

And what a finish it was.

"YES, DARLINGS!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!" Rarity cried out, pumping her forehoof into the sky and pounding it against the halo in celebration.

'Brilliant work today, Rarity! P1! What a finish! That one was for Niki!' Jacquet cried out to her in celebration, knowing that Lauda was probably looking down on the race with a big smile on his face, knowing that an underdog just scored the victory.

"That victory was for all of us at Renault, too! I'll see you on the podium!" She signed off, before completing a parade lap and pulling into the victory box. Suri followed suit and stopped next to her, before jumping out and embracing the fashion mare and jumping around with her.

And quite quickly, the two mare were joined by the entire Renault garage team, both Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hülkenberg as well as Pinkie Pie and both of the Crimson Arrows. They saw, after quite a bit of tragedy and heartbreak at Catalunya, Rarity had bounced back and won the crown jewel Grand Prix of the world.

Author's Note

Results

1. Rarity - 25 points
2. Suri Polomare - 18 points
3. Fluttershy - 15 points
4. Ocellus - 12 points
5. Viral Velocity - 10 points
6. Gallus - 8 points + 1 (Fastest Lap) (DNF)
7. Rainbow Dash - 6 points (DNF)
8. Yona - 4 points (DNF)
9. Chrysalis - 2 points (DNF)
10. Luna - 1 point (DNF)
11. Gladmane - 0 points (DNF)
12. Silverstream - 0 points (Disqualified)

Driver's Championship

1. Viral Velocity - 78 points
2. Akula - 68 points
3. Celestia - 63 points
4. Gallus - 41 points
5. Fluttershy - 31 points
6. Twilight Sparkle - 31 points
7. Rarity - 28 points
8. Chrysalis - 28 points
9. Sandbar - 28 points
10. DangerDean - 28 points
11. Rainbow Dash - 25 points
12. Pinkie Pie - 21 points
13. Suri Polomare - 19 points
14. Luna - 19 points
15. Lightning Dust - 18 points
16. Silverstream - 17 points
17. Ocellus - 13 points
18. Spitfire - 12 points
19. Oscura Galaxia - 12 points
20. Yona - 10 points
21. Gladmane - 10 points
22. Cheese Sandwich - 6 points
23. Applejack - 5 points
24. Big Macintosh - 0 points

Constructor's Championship

1. Mercedes-AMG Petronas - 177 points
2. Alfa-Romeo Racing - 96 points
3. Scuderia Ferrari - 71 points
4. BWT Racing Point - 56 points
5. Renault F1 Team - 47 points
6. Red Bull Scuderia Toro Rosso - 43 points
7. HAAS F1 Team - 39 points
8. ROKiT Williams F1 Racing - 38 points
9. Aston-Martin Red Bull Racing - 35 points
10. McLaren F1 - 5 points