F1 Equestria: Duels of the Century

Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany

Formula One Equestria Duels series

Duel 4: DNG (Scuderia Ferrari) VS AKU (Mercedes-AMG Petronas)

Duel Type: Sprint Race, One-On-One

"Welcome, all fans of motorsport! This is Round 11 of the 2019 Formula One season and you are watching the Formula One Equestria series! Flim and Flam here once again to bring you the best of Equestrian F1 racing this year! We are at the Hockenheimring for the German Grand Prix and I must say, Mercedes must be having the time of their lives right now!"

"Yes, they are. For once again, Mercedes is dominating this season! Their two top drivers are having a 1-2 result in the Driver's Championship and Mercedes is leading the Constructor's Championship by quite some margin. In fact, they have a very good reason to celebrate here, as they are the title sponsors of this race and are celebrating their 125th Anniversary in motorsports!"

"Yes, but will their home pride be enough to help them take the victory here at Hockenheim? Time to find out,"

This was the biggest challenge that Akula was facing. But he wasn't that nervous.

Sure, he was now 22 points behind his nearest rival, Mercedes teammate and best friend Viral Velocity. However, the F1 circus had now arrived at Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix. Akula loved the circuit that had played host to the more recent German Grand Prix, serving some time with the legendary Nurburgring Grand Prix Track and Nordschleife. The track, located in the forests of the town of Hockenheim, had plenty of fast straights followed by tight corners. Perfect for late-braking attacks.

The Demon Lord was known to make an odd braking attack during opening weekend, using this technique to catch out many drivers in Free Practice, including mentor Lewis Hamilton. In fact, he had the fastest car in the field. With his Mercedes W10 under his control, Akula had broken the Formula One lap record of the Hockenheimring 5 times.

Speaking of his W10, it was different. Gone was the black and red shark. Now, his Mercedes was coated completely in bright silver paint, with no single sponsorship decal on his car. The only bit that wasn't silver was the halo, which was painted in dark black.

Given the fact that Mercedes was the title sponsor of the Hockenheimring track and that they were celebrating their 125th Anniversary in Motorsport, Akula wanted to run something special on his car. However, he didn't want to use the proposed livery that Hamilton and Bottas used in the main race. Instead, the changeling took a page from Ferrari's book. Just like the Prancing Horse had done at the 2001 Italian Grand Prix to commemorate the 9/11 Terror Attacks, Akula stripped his Mercedes of all sponsorship decals and decided to run in a plain silver-and-black Mercedes, just like how the Silver Arrows raced in the past.

This time, he would get a much bigger challenge, in the form of DangerDean. Dean would be his opponent, driving his brightly coloured Ferrari. Akula knew that he had the car to beat. But it was time to find out if the practice had paid off. He pulled his Mercedes onto the grid, stopped just behind Dean. The lights went green and the the two set off for the warm up lap. As the lap passed, Akula noted the places where he could catch Dean under the brakes. Those places were the NordKurve, Turn 2, Hairpin and Mercedes.

Once the two approached the final corner, the Safety Car pulled into the pits and Dean built up speed. Akula stayed with him and the two took off down towards NordKurve, Dean leading the way.

Akula was quick to make a pass attempt, trying to sneak up the inside of Dean going into the first corner. It was tight, but doable. The right-side wheels of the Mercedes skipped over the kerb and Akula went wheel to wheel with Dean. But the pegasus used the superior straight-line speed of the Ferrari to pull away. Nevertheless, Akula tried again into Turn 2. He caught Dean under the brakes again and rode alongside him through Turns 3 and 4. But Dean seized the lead again through the sweeping Parabolika. Akula then pulled into the slipstream of the Ferrari down towards Hairpin.

Yet again, Akula caught Dean under the brakes. But this time, Akula had more luck. This time, Dean accidentally locked up and Akula was able to sneak past and take the lead. But Dean hung in behind, waiting for an opportunity to pass. But nothing worked for the pegasus as of then. At the end of the first lap, Akula had the lead by 0.3 seconds with Dean hot on his hooves.

But Akula used every single meter of tarmac to his advantage, pulling more and more quicker lap times as the Demon Lord got into the groove. Dean just couldn't keep up and fell back steadily. Eventually, Akula had held on to his lead and took the victory after the final lap.

'Chequered flag, chequered flag! What a race, champ!' Petrov reported, as Akula slowed down for the Post-Duel Lap.

"Did you like that performance? Hahahaha!!!! This is why I love this track!" Akula stated, waving to the crowd as he completed one more lap.

'Very nicely done, Akula! Very nice...' Petrov then cut himself off for a few seconds and delivered some bad news, 'Uh, Akula. I just got word from the stewards that you will be placed at the back of the grid come race time,'

Akula's heart sank. "What? What happened?!"

'They're saying you exceeded track limits at Turn 1 on every lap. All those lap times you set have been invalidated,'

"Ah, s***. No matter, I'll still have the victory at the end of the day. Mark my words, Petrov. We will prevail,'" Akula finished the conversation, pulling his Mercedes into the garage.

The changeling couldn't believe his luck. Whatever had plagued Lewis and Valtteri during the main race had now hit him. Now, Akula was hoping that the same thing wouldn't happen to Viral and Twilight.