[center][h1][b]Thursday August 3rd Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany 1500 EST [/b][/h1][/center] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Fear Factor Part Two[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [b]Soundtrack: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqN-AAfY61s]The Prodigy- Timebomb Zone[/url] [/b] [img]https://www.welcome-hotels.com/site/assets/files/45682/nurburg-6114976_1920.2560x988.jpg[/img] Ben had taken a fast approach, giving Bea everything and more back when the canopy lid went down. What she'd given, he'd give back.... "Past idol, has to be Starcross, come on!" Ben replied, taking a nice line through a chicane, leaving the GP circuit out to the Nordschlife. The next question came quickly, after Ben didn't take any corners slow, blasting back on power hearing that particularly iconic question come back. "Schnitzel! Okay, back over Flugplatz in a bit!" Ben whooped, turning the ship through another series of MAG-walled corners, cackling with excitement, waiting for the next question. "Uhh, honestly, sometimes whether I've left....ooo that's late, yeah sometimes I think about just random stuff, crap that is tight out of there!" Ben yelled out, taking a tight line after the ship landed at Flugplatz, coming a few meters closer to the wall, but internally, not wanting to communicate that in this ship, he hadn't felt that all there. "Couple, I'd ship Cassie and Harrison, I mean where there's smoke there's fire!" Ben was replying to the quick fire, as the corners burned and burned away. "BBQ host, probably Sally, she is amazing!" "Dream car, uhhh.....crap, probably a Pagani Horatio Carrera, 2052 spec, always wanted one of those, best looking car, ever!" Ben hurtled the ship around into Eschbach, giving Bea back exactly what was given, even as a junior, knowing how to find the margins. His skill lay less in being able to tame unstable ships into corners, but more like his mentor, smoothly, caressing the ship to find a limit, starting slow and then ramping it up, a conservative approach that then started to push against limits. "Uhhh, race on Mars, definitely, I love space so no brainer!" Ben kept going, keeping it flat through the turbulent undulation towards the last third of the lap, hearing Bea's next question, the feeling of piloting a ship without traffic absolutely addicting. "I have an orange tabby cat called Peach, my girlfriend says we should get more and call them after other fruit but I think she's....woah, big turn in little Carousel!" Ben yelled, basically screaming at this point as the ship got whipped around like a bobsled in a corner. And pulling off it. "Yeah, okay, that was fun! You alright?" Ben smiled, back down the final sectors, peeling off the Nordschlife and back into the pits, opening the canopy, getting a glance at a no doubt, terrified Bea. [hr] Meanwhile, Florence was smiling, as best as she could and returning the favour to Kais, piloting with a certain kind of smooth, controlled, gentle poise. She almost seemed buttery at the controls, barely having to think much to pull the ship around, Florence similar to Cassie in having Scots heritage, albeit rather than Edinburgh-accented soft touch, it was a more or a Highland, northern Scots accent given her roots in Aberdeen and Moray, whisky country. A legend of the sport, with very little to prove, given her two titles and Triple Crown, she just oozed ease, even being attacked around a circuit by the most scary of all the pilots, and now in control, reflected that. "Past idol? David Coulthard! I mean, come on, Scottish, F1 driver! Yeah, I'm old school like that!" Florence was easy, barely even wincing under pressure. "Strudel! With cherries, honestly, unbeatable!" Easy again, Flugplatz taken more gracefully than Ben, Florence able to steer the ship, even this model, like it virtually flew through the sector and into the MAG-wall catch. "When leading a race once, I was so far ahead, I genuinely thought about the robot at Robot Corner in Tokyo, loads and loads. Like, you ever been like....oh damn, these brakes are so much worse than a normal ship! Yeah, like how does it work, is there a person in there operating it like a mech, or just a server, and if the former, when can I give it a go?" No doubt Florence caught out Kais there, stabbing on airbrakes and no doubt winding him up with just how hard she had to bank in, pushing the ship a little more now she was comfortable, knowing she'd likely winded Kais if she was feeling that turn herself. "Sorry! A bit of late braking there, yeah apart from that, what do I think on track, probably trying not to crash! Uhh, I would ship Paul and Bea, they're both basically border collies and mad as each other!" Florence replied, giggling away, absolutely enjoying this format again as silly as it was to the next question. "Probably Sally, she's gonna get a shout here because I didn't think it was true, but she might actually be better than my dad's!" Florence added, giving a whoo as the undulation threw the ship out of the winding esses, already into the last third of the circuit. "Dream car, uhhh, I already have it, 2012 Porsche GT3 RS, best thing in the world, absolute dream. Let me know if you fancy a go and it will change your opinion on early 21st Century cars, completely, it's so mechanical!" Florence smirked, the questions quick-firing back. "Ocean, I do not sleep well in space, I tried Rally Raid on Mars but it is sickening! So yeah, under the sea, which I prefer!" Another easy one, the ship cranked up to 400kph through the tight forest, before back through towards Carousel. "Things you don't know, gosh you already did so many of these....okay, I actually found out through my mum I am distantly related to the guy from Pink Floyd, Nick Mason? I have no idea how, but I suppose it explains why I liked drumming as a kid! Or something! I don't know, but yeah, that's a lap! How are you feeling Kais?" Florence smiled, pulling into the pits, behind the other ship that had already run a lap, Bea and Ben already out. [hr] In the other ship, Hamid kept a tight leash through the corners, no doubt terrifying Paul at this point. The GP track had its fair share of tight corners, even in spite of it being tame versus the Nordschlife, public-road like section. "Shit, Dunlop is way tighter than I thought! Okay, idol, that would be Maxine Lacroix, she was unbeatable on a good day!" A deep cut. Interesting from Hamid, given he probably wasn't alive during her dominating period, but well, it all trickled in, questions coming quick. "Strudel, I have always been a sugar fiend!" Hamid was bullet point, his technique with the ship as a former test pilot finding limits fast, but perhaps not quite yet as comfortable as others in extracting the dark arts when it came to qualifying or races, just focussed on technical rather than the innate ship to ship feeling. "No idea, I think uhh...Ben and Bea? Come one, someone had to say that! Or else someone is saying you and anyone else, brother!" Shipping was not an easy answer to make. But he could make a punt at least. "Uhh, honestly, I heard good things about Harrison, Australian BBQ is almost better than Tagine, if not, then my father with mechoui is the best!" Hamid was boyish in his response, but of course, nothing to him beat that mechoui. Noting artificial even glimmered. "Yallah, Land Rover Defender 90, air conditioning attached! So many rusted out models that I wanted to buy and restore, I would give my kidneys to find an original like my great-grandfather had in Ouazarate!" Hamid chuckled, a little bit of that rally raid lover coming out, as he peeled through a tight left right, building his trust with the ship, albeit hanging loose through a dip and turn. "Mars, I'm all about sand, desert, same thing, right?" The Moroccan understated, in the way only a young pilot similar in age to Paul could. "Uhhh, I play electric guitar and e-bow in my spare time, I used to play in a Saharan rock band so I love music and run a separate social page, @RiffSaharien for that!" Hamid straightened up the ship on the straight, cackling, with a big grin, hoping Paul had held it together. "Habibi, this was fun! Thank you!" [hr] [center][h1][b]Saturday August 5th Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany 1500 EST [/b][/h1][/center] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Out Lap[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] Qualifying had come and gone. The lap was normally the longest of any F1 circuit, yet in AG terms, seemed short compared to Jordan, Auckland, Cape Town and Italy in particular, with the endless amounts of corners and undulation making it feel longer, as well as the lack of an insane view that any of those four presented. It felt more cerebral, every undulation terrifying, yet speed never lost completely in any section. It was difficult to pass, that was for sure, so a good qualy lap felt like a good marker of performance, at least, knowing that it was about what the ship could do on the circuit. And the results put teams that had invested into stability back on top. Though Amy's ship catching fire at Flugplatz was not on anyone's bingo card, the disappointed Brit clambering out of a ship that simply decided that it didn't want to complete a qualy lap today, the trim set a little too aggressively on the ship and engine settings turned up a little too high. But on the flipside, Jenny was actually proving to be a fiend in that second seat, and wedged between two Zygon ships. They'd been performing well, coming through with a stability setup that certainly threatened other teams on the grid, no doubt, Carrera Condor were watching that. Southern Cross were off the mark, with Nora Kelly doing what she did best in ragging a ship that simply just didn't feel cohesive over the line, while Valkyrie were looking like they'd go to war with Carrera once more. Al-Saqr weren't exactly loving how lacking in stability the ship was, but Hamid not being as bad as before was a good omen, at least. Unlike Spa, the dry, sunny qualifying had been fairly without incident. [hider=Qualifying Results for Nürburgring:] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qF6cn-eA0G0sumgf79TvEnPjOHyQP-vZSFV6LNrn_OY/edit?usp=sharing [/hider] [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Review with Rory Andrews[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] Rory looked up, sitting in the sofa again, first time in a little while after the results of qualy played out, the ups and downs all to see. "I think it became clear that what we saw in Auckland turned out to be a false dawn for many teams, for many pilots. And for Kelly and Zenix, I think their early successes got tested in how the rest of the grid bit back. It has been one of the most competitive seasons in Formula AG in years, and they were put against it." More footage played back, showing them talking to staff, as Aurora broke the murmur. "And how about the pilot swap at Silver Apex?" "The move for Lowry just seemed like a match made in heaven. And her friend in Formula AG, Beatrix Ward....well, nobody had a victory from Carrera Condor! Nobody!" Rory chuckled, cutting to them, looking at telemetry in their pit box, coming back in. "I suppose it comes down to how they did in improving that ship. Lots of risks, but lots of payoff too. And it makes the midfield, which was impossible to separate, simply even more difficult. We've had so many race winners, and what we thought was a sweep from Amy Stirling just isn't happening this year. And then there's NOVA Racing...well, that has been staggering too. All change." Rory commented, the camera cutting back to him. "How do you see the rest of the season playing out, with that update?" Aurora asked, as Rory laughed, the lightly bearded commentator leaning back in his chair, shrugging. "Harrison Makara is two dozen points from Amy Stirling. And Nora Kelly is no doubt smelling blood because she's right behind. Her injury was....well, one of the worst we've seen, and most thought she'd be down and out. But not her, so I expect any chance she knows she has, she'll take. She is overperforming a ship that seemingly can't be tamed in stability, even in circuits like this. Kais Zenix is the same, despite losing Layla to personal, medical reasons, he just won't let up now. And as for the others? I think they all want to make the most of this season. Valkyrie want a solid finish to prepare for next year's final push. Carrera want to solidify their position and beat out teams, maybe style themselves as a Southern Cross for next year. Zygon want to recover, bring it back to somewhere they can with a ship that now looks like what they really wanted at the start of the season. And the other teams in the midfield will squabble. Silver Apex will want to get that first place back, by any means, and with Jenny, I think they have a chance of it." Rory paused, shrugging his shoulders. "It's all to play for. No runaway winners yet." [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Post Qualifying Interview [/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] Back on the couch, the interview felt like it shifted gears, from the fun. All of the pilots got asked the same question, cutting between the individuals, the question feeling a little bit more brutal, honest, open, from Aurora. An opportunity to bear a heart, or cover that. [b]What would you say is the hardest thing for you about racing in Formula AG?[/b]