Round 11: Germany
Final Race (34 laps)

Starting Grid

1. Viral Velocity (Mercedes-AMG Petronas)
2. Rainbow Dash (Scuderia Ferrari)
3. Twilight Sparkle (Mercedes-AMG Petronas)
4. Fluttershy (Red Bull Toro Rosso)
5. Lightning Dust (Scuderia Ferrari)
6. Spitfire (Scuderia Ferrari)
7. Luna (Alfa-Romeo Racing)
8. Ocellus (Red Bull Toro Rosso)
9. Suri Polomare (Renault)
10. Silverstream (BWT Racing Point)
11. Yona (Williams)
12. Akula (Mercedes-AMG Petronas)

"Guten Morgen, race fans! Welcome to the 2019 Equestria Series German Grand Prix! Flim and Flam speaking to all of you fans once again from the commentary booth! We are about to get underway here at the Hokenheimring, so let's have a look at the grid!"

"We have Viral Velocity, your points leader, stating on pole, followed closely behind by Rainbow Dash. She will be looking for a good result, with not having the best track record. Behind them are Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy on Row 2. Fluttershy having a fantastic season so far, with 5th in the Championship so far,"

"Ferrari dominated the Third Row, with Lightning Dust and Spitfire taking P5 and P6 respectively. Behind them, are Luna and Ocellus, with Suri Polomare and Silverstream rounding out the Top 10,"

"Finishing up the grid is Yona in the Williams and, surprisingly, Akula. From what I hear, his lap times in his Duel were invalidated due to track limit breaches. He's looking for a win here, but it looks like he will have to fight to get it!"

"Looks like we are about to get underway! Here we go!"

Earlier...
Mercedes trailer

"It's just strange that they wouldn't show up, my queen," Akula stated, staring into Chrysalis' eyes.

While Chrysalis wasn't dressed in her race uniform, she was still a member of the HAAS team. The reason she was allowed anywhere near the Mercedes area was because of her connection with Akula. As a result, she was allowed to be near her lover whenever she needed to be.

"I'm sure that they have a good reason. Don't stress it too much," She replied, trotting up to him. "At least you have me and your other friends to keep you company,"

"I just can't stop thinking about it. Why wouldn't show up?" Akula questioned, still confused. The Demon Lord was never one to act crazily (no, that was Strict Thunder's job), but he just couldn't fathom what was going on. Why wouldn't his own friends show up to the one race he got them V.I.P tickets for? What could possibly be more important than seeing their best friend race? And it was beginning to drive the Demon Lord crazy.

Luckily, Chrysalis had a remedy for this problem. Before Akula could continue his rambling, the Changeling Queen yanked him around and locked lips with him. This caught the changeling by surprise, but he soon relaxed and deepened the kiss with his queen. About 5 minutes passed by as the two love-bugs continued to make out and smooch, before Akula was called to the grid.

"I need to go, my queen. I'm going to show the crowd exactly what Mercedes is capable. What I am capable of," Akula stated, staring into his lover's eyes once more.

"I know you will surely blow them away, my love. Just please be careful," Chrysalis replied to him, as he left to take to the grid.

Akula just turned back to his queen and smiled. "You know me better than that, my Queen. I always know what I'm doing," And with that, he left the trailer and headed to the grid to get ready for the race. Of course, he had his helmet with him and the HANS device and a balaclava to go with it. Of course, the helmet was of his own design. Cards were littered all over the helmet, every single one of them ace cards from all four suits. The design was simple, but effective and it even was a bit of symbolism, being the only driver in the series that actually had former F1 experience and is being currently employed by one of the teams. In other words, he was the only 'ace' in the deck of drivers. And yes, there was plenty of room for the sponsors to be placed.

Akula just proceeded onto the grid and hopped into his bright silver Mercedes, inserted the wheel and settled into the seat. Then, the radio came to life with the voice of his chosen race engineer. It was none other than former Renault F1 driver, Vitaly Petrov. 'Akula, radio check,'

As usual, Akula replied with his traditional radio check. "Radio 1-2, 1-2. Copy you, loud and clear,"

'Okay, we are about to go green. Fight through the pack and take the win. Shouldn't be too hard for you,'

"It always is, Petrov. Let's get this done," Akula stated, as he eyed up the cars ahead of him. Between him and the victory was 11 other top drivers. But he knew that he could take them all. The first light on the tree lit up and Akula gunned his Mercedes engine. All the others joined in as the lights began to add up.

Soon, all the lights were shining, before going out and, under a light haze of rain, starting the race.

"The drivers are all set. Your points leader on the right of your screen. The lights are out, here we go!!"

Viral got the best jump and began to pull away into the first corner, Dash, Twilight and Fluttershy chasing her down. Akula got an okay start and managed to sneak by Yona through the first corner. Akula gunned it down the straight towards Turn 2, taking Silverstream and Suri under the brakes.

Passing through Turns 3 and 4, Akula pushed his Mercedes to the limit down Parabolika and picked some more spots from Ocellus and Luna. But, the top 6 were too far ahead for any type of move to be pulled on them and Akula spent the rest of the first lap trying to reel them in. And by the end of the first lap, Akula had climed up 5 places and was now 1 second behind 6th, which was Fluttershy.

But as the 3rd lap rolled around, the rain got harder and harder. Until it reached a peak point and all the top drivers had to come in and pit for wet tyres. This pit allowed Akula to gain some time on the leaders and be within striking distance on Lap 4.

Viral still led the way, Dash close behind her. After them, Twilight, Lightning Dust and Spitfire were locked in a battle for 3rd. But heading down the short straight towards Turn 2, Akula decided to join in the fray and pulled into the Wonderbolt Captain's slipstream on the approach down the straight.

And as the group slowed down for the near-hairpin, just like Daniel Riccardo did at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Akula pulled out of the slipstream and sailed up the inside of the two Ferraris and his Mercedes teammate, catching them all under the brakes and taking 3rd for himself. And upon seeing such a daring move, the crowd roared in approval as the changeling moved up to take off after Dash and Viral.

8 laps in and the rain didn't seem let up. While it wasn't wet enough to warrant a red flag, like in Canada, it was still raining pretty heavily. Thankfully, all of the drivers had come in for wets and the conditions were manageable. But it was becoming difficult to see, especially for those caught in the slipstream of other drivers, as they would be blinded by a shower of mist.

Also, the track was still very slippery and many cars had to use a slower engine setting and slow down a bit to avoid slipping off the track. However, Yona seemed to ignore this message and maintained her speed in the hope that she would be able to pick up a few more spots from other drivers. However, she slipped off the track at Turn 15 and brought out the SC.

This allowed Akula to get back into contention with the Top 2 of Dash and Viral.

On Lap 12, the Safety Car pulled in and the race continued. This time, Akula was right where he needed to be. And he chose Dash to be his drafting partner, as they three exited NordKurve and began the run to Turn 2. Of course, he wouldn't be able to get past, as the Ferrari he was drafting was way too fast for him to get by, but he would get a better chance on the approach to Hairpin.

As Dash pulled alongside Viral in an attempt to get past, Akula pulled out of the draft and went three-wide with the two cars, before catching them on brakes once more and taking the lead of the Grand Prix, ahead of a shocked Dash and impressed Viral.

"Oh, yeah! That felt good!" Akula stated, feeling very proud of his move.

By Lap 16, the rain and track had begun to clear up. The wets that all of the drivers were on were beginning to slow them down and most began to think about a set of Inters or even Softs. And on Lap 18, some of the leaders came in for Inters, with Akula and Viral getting the best stop, with a lightning quick double-stack stop.

However, one lap later, Twilight then pulled into the pits and put on a set of Soft tyres. Having done the calculations in her head, the Princess of Friendship thought that taking a risk and putting slicks on would be worth it. And when she did put them on, it seemed to pay off. Twilight was now the fastest car on the track.

But when notified by Petrov that Viral wanted to pit for slicks, Akula told her to be patient and wait to see what the weather did. Thankfully, she listened to reason and held off on a pit.

On Lap 20, the answer became clear. The rain had stopped and the track was drying up. With that in his knowledge, Akula contacted Petrov to notify that Viral could pit for slicks if she wanted to do so. However, Akula also said that Viral should exercise caution if she does, as the track was still slippery.

Sure enough, Viral pitted for slicks the next lap. And the gamble seemed to pay off, as Viral was now the fastest car on the track. She even managed to take the lead back from Akula and put him into third (as Twilight passed him as well with Viral). Akula didn't mind. He still had plenty of laps to catch then and he needed to harvest some more battery.

But on Lap 23, everything went wrong. Of course, it helped that Fluttershy had been taken out by her own teammate earlier when trying to put Ocellus a lap down. Although she was still able to continue, she had lost a whole ton of positions.

However, things went wrong for the home team. Coming around Turn 15, Twilight had begun to struggle and lose traction. This caused her to go wide and end up on the drag strip that was just off the circuit and had been turned into an ice-skating rink thanks to the rain.

Earlier, on Lap 15, Silverstream had gone off at the exact same place. However, not only was the hippogriff able to not end up in the gravel trap, she had also kept the Racing Point's Mercedes engine running. Therefore, she was able to continue racing.

But Twilight wouldn't be so lucky. She slid of the track and ended up in the gravel. Her momentum was just enough was that she just bumped the wall and knocked over some of the 125th Anniversary banners she hit onto her car. But worst of all, Twilight's W10 was stuck in the gravel. This left the Princess with a DNF.

And that wasn't then end of the problems for Mercedes. As Viral approached the same corner, she was notified by Neon as to what happened. But before Viral could make anything happen, she suffered the same problem and slid off into the gravel. But unlike Twilight, her momentum was enough that she was able to get back out onto the track. However, she managed to impact the wall and knock off the front wing.

She cut back across the field and entered the pits. But things got even worse, as the pit crew wasn't ready for a wing change. The crew panicked and the wing change took longer than what was normal. The pit took so long, Viral had dropped from the lead, all the way to 8th. And to make things even worse, Viral was given a 5-second time penalty for entering the pit lane from the wrong side of the safety bollard.

It was all up to Akula to give Mercedes the victory at their home race.

The laps continued to count down and Akula still held a comfortable lead over Dash. In fact, he had lost the lead to Dash because he stayed out on the Inters until the track dried up enough and he came in for slicks.

All Akula needed to do was to hold the lead and hope that no safety car would come out. However, the yellow flag was called on Lap 27 after Silverstream binned it at Turn 8. Although she was once again able to not hit the gravel and get back on the track, she had hit the back of Luna's Alfa-Romeo and had broken her front wing. And the Safety Car was deployed while the marshals picked up the pieces from the road.

But this left the top drivers within striking distance of Akula. Dash, Lightning, Fluttershy and Spitfire were all now able to make a move and to make matters even worse, Viral was catching back up. Luckily, the safety Car took quite a while and when it pulled in, there was only 6 laps to go.

And as the green flag waved, Akula got the jump and began to pull away. But the two Ferrari's of Dash and Dust were close behind. But the Demon Lord had an ace up his sleeves, all that energy he had saved from harvesting during the damp conditions had allowed him to use the highest power strat for the rest of the race, whereas the Ferraris chasing him were trying to save battery in order to get to the finish.

"I want to use my engine and battery when I can, Petrov!" Akula stated, pushing his car harder in order to keep the distance to the Ferraris.

'Copy, you can go to strat 2 and use Overtake whenever you can,' Petrov replied.

"10-4," Akula acknowledged, as he used the buttons on his wheel to set the hybrid system to strat 2 and using his KERS whenever he could. And with this deficit, Akula would hold on to the lead. Dash would hunt her down, but the amount of dirty air and the fact that Akula had plenty of battery to use, she couldn't reign him in.

Akula pulled around the final corner of SudKurve and took the chequered flag, taking the win for him and Mercedes. Just what the fans of Germany were looking for.

"YAAAAAAHAHAHA!!!!!! THAT WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE HAD!!!!!" Akula cried out, punching his hoof into the sky and waving at the crowd.

'Get in there, Akula! Well done! P1! From last to P1, what a legendary drive,' Petrov complimented, as Akula pulled into parc ferme and jumped out to celebrate with the team. Chrysalis was amongst the Mercedes crewmen and the Demon Lord happily embraced her and gleefully sprayed down Petrov with champagne during the podium ceremony.

For the Mercedes team, this victory was just what they needed after disaster in the human race.

Author's Note

Results

1. Akula - 25 + 1 points (Fastest Lap
2. Rainbow Dash - 18 points
3. Lightning Dust - 15 points
4. Viral Velocity - 12 points (5 sec time penalty)
5. Spitfire - 10 points
6. Fluttershy - 8 points
7. Luna - 6 points
8. Ocellus - 4 points (1 lap down)
9. Suri Polomare - 2 points (1 lap down)
10. Silverstream - 1 point
11. Twilight Sparkle - 0 points (DNF)
12. Yona - 0 points (DNF)

Driver's Championship

1. Viral Velocity - 149 points
2. Akula - 141 points
3. DangerDean - 98 points
4. Celestia - 89 points
5. Fluttershy - 76 points
6. Rainbow Dash - 59 points
7. Gallus - 52 points
8. Pinkie Pie - 43 points
9. Twilight Sparkle - 37 points
10. Lightning Dust - 36 points
11. Oscura Galaxia - 34 points
12. Suri Polomare - 33 points
13. Applejack - 32 points
14. Spitfire - 30 points
15. Rarity - 30 points
16. Chrysalis - 30 points
17. Sandbar - 28 points
18. Luna - 25 points
19. Ocellus - 25 points
20. Big Macintosh - 24 points
21. Silverstream - 21 points
22. Yona - 12 points
23. Cheese Sandwich - 11 points
24. Gladmane - 10 points

Constructor's Championship

1. Mercedes-AMG Petronas - 328 points
2. Scuderia Ferrari - 214 points
3. Alfa-Romeo Racing - 128 points
4. BWT Racing Point - 106 points
5. Red Bull Toro Rosso - 96 points
6. Aston-Martin Red Bull Racing - 84 points
7. Renault F1 Team - 63 points
8. McLaren F1 - 56 points
9. HAAS F1 - 41 points
10. ROKiT Williams F1 Racing - 40 points