Gilles and the other nineteen racers are now ready in their cars on the grid to start their qualification session for the race. From the last position on the grid he then notices his family in the fan crowd, so he, full of confidence and a feeling of almost a dream come true with this car, gives them a thumb up to ignite a positive feelings about this in them too.
And when the lights go out, every driver sets their cars into motion followed by that agressively magnificent sound of the engines. Everybody now dive into their first lap, an out-lap, to warm their tires and brakes and gain some speed into their flying laps.
Gilles drives this lap slowly and carefully to revise every possible detail about the circuit. He was reaching the final two big fast turns where he decides to gain as much speed into his flying lap as he possibly can so he presses the gas pedal to the floor and tryes to go throught these corners flat out. When he was heading into the second turn, he sees another racer on the inside line going much slower than him. In response to this, Gilles goes on the outside line in before this turn, releases the gas pedal for a moment until he is in the apex of the corner and then presses it to the floor again. While doing this however, he felt his car losing grip in the corner and disobeying him again.
But that doesn't matter anymore because he is heading into his flying lap now, in his mind is nothing else than a single thought, to drive the best he can now... no matter what. Fortunatly for Gilles, everyone decided to go on the flying lap at the same moment so nobody gets in the way because of small speed.
Gilles is heading into the two last corners again and as the last time, he decides to go throught them flat out. In the first corner this strategy works for him and he absolutly flyes throught it, he passes one car after another, hinting that his time is potentionally very good. To avoid all the cars on the inside line, he continues to go on the outside line of the track and decides to enter the following corner on this line as well.
As he reaches the apex of this corner, he feels his car oversteering as its rear part slides into a spin and he hits into the barrier with his left rear wheel and causes its puncture and a serious damage too, in exactly the same way as in the practice.
No other option is left for him than to return into the pits and hope the mechanics manage to repair so he can finish some more laps for qualification. In the pits he shuts down the engine and gets out of the car. Immidiately after he takes off his helmet, the main mechanic approaches him with anger and words about being more careful and that if he doesn't manage to even finish a qualifying lap, he can't think of finishing a race. These words make Gilles very angry, so angry actually that he finds some words for the mechanic as well.
"I don't care about driving carefully without taking a risk! That's not called racing because without taking a risk you can't win! So how about you fix that damn car in time and let me try and take the risk again to have a chance to win, huh?"
The mechanic just nods, visibly unpleasantly, and goes to fix the car. In a meantime, Gilles made himself a tea to somehow kill the time at least a bit usefully. While drinking the tea, he is nonstop checking he watch to know how much time is left into the qualifying session end. When there are last three and a half minutes left, the main mechanic finally announces Gilles that the car is ready for him so he makes himself ready. As he gets in the car, he sees the mechanic approaching him, Gilles recognizes that he wants to say something about driving carefully, so to prevent this he just gives him a stare very obviously saying "Don't you even dare try to say these words" and he switches the engine on and with a loud roar leaves the pits, entering his out-lap.
But to make sure that he makes it in time back to finish line to catch one last flying lap, he decides not to drive this lap slowly like he did during the first out-lap. No! This time he decides to drive this lap as fast as he possibly can without going off track. And it works for him for the big part, after almost skidding few times due to having cold tires, which now are finally warm, he is approaching these two for him fatal turns. This time he doesn't go into the first one flat out to avoid having too high speed to enter the following corner on the inside line. He can almost feel the clock ticking, he can almost feel his time for entering the final lap running out.
After leaving the last corner, he has a clear view on the clock attached to the pole standing at the finish line, he can see the last ten seconds he has to finish this lap. He presses the gas pedal to the floor, shifts gears and with a roar of his furious engine he heads towards the finish line.
10, 9, 8,...
Gilles sees his time running quickly out, knowing that now he can't anyhow quicken the process of approaching his goal.
...7,6,5,...
He feels his sweat running down his skin. The tension becomes nearly unbearable, while watching rest of the drivers coming back into the pits. Engine roaring so loudly that it seems it wants to explode every second!
...4,3,2,...
And he crosses the line at literally the last moment possible, entering the flying lap! With nobody else on the track, he is literally making this the flying lap in every sense of the word. His speed absolutly insane.
His driving style taking the car to its limits, nearly falling apart during this lap. And here it comes again, today already for the forth time, the last two corners.Gilles feeling his car becoming more and more fragile and his self confidence weakened after all that has happened in this corners, he decides something unimaginable, he releases the gas pedal and drives throught there safely. After the second corner he accelerates again and brings the car back to its limits. And then he finally crosses the finish line! After going throught the corner one more time, he comes back to pits, feeling this great feeling he felt after the practice once again, smirking under his helmet, nearly crying out of joy.
He shuts down the engine, gets out of the car, takes off his helmet and hood and immidiately feels a unexpected warm on his body, taking in the sight of the main mechanic wrapping arms around him.
"Ya are absolutly insane, kid! Ya know that? Ya finished tenth! You aboslute maniac, I don't know what you did with the car but it was incredible!"
Gilles' expression of the good feeling fades away from his face. He walks out of the pits, mechanics having no clue what is happening. Gilles looks into the fan crowd, looking for his wife. After few seconds he finds her and their gazes meet. Joanne, thinking that Gilles is having the time of his life because of the impression he was giving when he arrived back into the pits, is smiling at Gilles and waving at him. But her misconception meets reality when she notices Gilles' expression now. He is sad and disappointed.
Thought that comes to everyone's mind is propably that qualifying tenth in the first race isn't something to be ashamed of, right? Well, you have to take in mind that in this moment and situation he put his family into, he sees everything but a result that would show him as the best in the world or at least a result ensuring a bright future of his family as a failure.
"Tomorrow, I must beat them, I will beat them all!"