F1 Equestria: Duels of the Century

Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Hungary

Formula One Equestria series

Duel 4: CHS (Red Bull Toro Rosso) VS OCE (Red Bull Toro Rosso)

Duel Type: Sprint Race, One-On-One

"Hello once again, you are watching the 2019 Formula One Equestria series! Flim and Flam here once again, coming to you live from Mogyoród in Hungary, for the 12th round of the season. But there was some shocking news from the Red Bull outfit, who announced a sudden driver swap. Anything you need to add on this development, Flam?"

"Why, yes I do. It was only just at the beginning of the weekend, when team boss Christian Horner announced that Cheese Sandwich would be demoted to the Toro Rosso team, with his seat in the main team taken up by Fluttershy. It was a hard swap, but it went through anyway..."

Cheese couldn't believe that it had come to this. It was the last thing he wanted to happen to him and it happened anyway. Gone was all the support from his favorite mentor and new friend, Gasly. Gone was his Aston-Martin sponsorship and the free DB9 car he got for working with the team. And gone was his happiness.

Because, only a few days earlier, the happy and fun-loving stallion had lost his seat at the main Red Bull team and was demoted to Toro Rosso.

The reasoning behind why the stallion was dropped to the junior team was because of the poor performances throughout the season. Cheese was second-to-last in the standing, only just ahead of Gladmane. And second-to-last was not a place where a main Red Bull driver was expected to be. So, the decision was made to replace Cheese with Fluttershy (who was fifth in points).

When the teams turned up for the race and Cheese was told to pack up his stuff and head down to the Toro Rosso garage, it seemed that he took his demotion well. But when the first practice session was completed and as he was getting to grips with the STR14, he broke down in in tears in his part of the trailer. To make matters worse, Pinkie was not happy with the decision to send the fellow party pony to the junior team. It made her spiteful towards the upper ranks of the team, although she maintained her bubbly attitude towards the pit crew, her race engineer and Fluttershy.

But what was done was done and Cheese had a job to do, whether he was ready to or not.

So there he was, sitting in the cockpit of his yellow Toro Rosso, staring down the light-blue Toro Rosso of his new teammate. He knew that while the young changeling was very shy, she knew how to drive. However, Cheese quickly adapted to the slower Toro Rosso, with no thanks to Albon. Ever since the swap, Cheese was given Albon as his new mentor in Toro Rosso while Ocellus started learning more tips and tricks from Kvyat. However, Cheese often rejected Albon's help.

Either way, he didn't care for Albon. But he had to race. Ocellus began to pull of the grid for the rolling start. Cheese just let out a sigh and followed his teammate around the circuit. As they came back around through the final three corners, the stallion was contacted by his race engineer, Pierre Hamelin. The exact same person that was Gasly's engineer from his time in Toro Rosso. Still, it was only a small crumb of comfort in a massive cookie of despair.

"Okay, you are approaching the starting line. Once the race starts, we will go to Engine 3, Scenario 10," Pierre reported.

"Copy. Let's hope this works," Cheese replied, all the happiness and joy in his voice gone. But as the pair came around the final corner and as the safety car pulled into the pits, his new racing instincts kicked in and flushed all of his pain away. Although the SC pace was kept through the final corner as Ocellus had launch control, the reformed changeling gunned it out of the final corner, starting the duel.

Cheese saw Ocellus take off and gunned the Honda engine of his STR14 after her. However, the jump that Ocellus had gotten ensured that the stallion would not be able to catch the changeling on the first lap. But from what had been proven in Free Practise, Cheese had shown considerably better pace than her.

It was no surprise that he began to close on his teammate, and on Lap 2, he was within DRS range. He had a chance of taking the lead. However, he never opened the wing. It seemed that he had taken a page from Akula's book and had stuck to shadowing his opponent. In reality, the real reason that he was not using DRS was that he had a plan, but he needed Ocellus to think that his DRS was malfunctioning.

And on Lap 3, he pounced. Going down the main straight, Cheese caught the draft and activated the DRS. This caught Ocellus by serious surprise, as the cheese-coloured Toro Rosso closed in. And going into Turn 1, he caught Ocellus under the brakes and took the lead away from her. However, Ocellus had the better line and took the lead back on the exit. But Cheese had gained some ground on his opponent and went for it again into Turn 2. This time, Cheese had the better line and edged just ahead of the changeling, but she still had the better exit as the two Toro Rossos when wheel-to-wheel through Turn 3 and down the straight to Turn 4.

Turn 4 was only wide enough for only one car, so as the two cars raced down the straight one would have to give way for the other once they got there. However, neither driver let off. As the two entered the corner, Cheese had the better line and rode the racing line.

Ocellus was not as lucky, and was forced off the track by her teammate. This allowed Cheese to pull quite a gap on his opponent. And it was a gap that Ocellus would not be able to close back up. Cheese would take the victory after two more laps of racing, a clear 4 seconds ahead of his opponent.

And as the chequered flag flew, all of his disappointment had flowed out of him like gravy. Cheese was back.